Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) fruits accumulate flavonoids in their cuticle and epidermal cells during ripening. Although many mutants available in model plant species, such as Arabidopsis thaliana ...and Medicago truncatula, are enabling the intricacies of flavonoid-related physiology to be deduced, the mechanisms whereby flavonoids influence eggplant fruit physiology are unknown. Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) is a reliable tool for the study of flavonoid function in fruit, and in this study, we successfully applied this technique to downregulate S. melongena chalcone synthase gene (SmCHS) expression during eggplant fruit ripening. In addition to the expected change in fruit color attributable to a lack of anthocyanins, several other modifications, including differences in epidermal cell size and shape, were observed in the different sectors. We also found that silencing of CHS gene expression was associated with a negative gravitropic response in eggplant fruits. These observations indicate that epidermal cell expansion during ripening is dependent upon CHS expression and that there may be a relationship between CHS expression and gravitropism during eggplant fruit ripening.
This study attempts to clarify the effect of canopy position on the physico-chemical parameters of apples cv. Braeburn. The experiments were carried out on fruit from the inner and outer part of the ...canopy in two growing seasons and at two harvest dates. Light measurements revealed that the average value of photo active radiation (PAR) for the inside and outside canopy amounted to 30.3 μmol/m2/s and 133.7 μmol/m2/s, respectively. Production year and canopy position significantly influenced ground color parameters a*, b*, C*, and h°, while the harvest date influenced all color parameters studied. For additional (red blush) coloration, the production year significantly influenced only the L* parameter, harvest date influenced all color parameters, and canopy position influenced L, a*, and C*. Only the fruits of the second harvest date showed more intense additional (red blush) coloration. The production year significantly affected fruit mass, firmness, total soluble solids (SSC), titratable acidity (TA), SSC/TA ratio, DPPH radical scavenging assay (AOP), total phenolic content (TPC), and total flavonoid content (TFC). The harvest date significantly influenced fruit mass, SSC, TA, SSC/TA, AOP, TPC, and TFC. The canopy position significantly influenced SSC, TA, AOP, TPC, and TFC. Regarding mineral content, the production year significantly affected the content of Fe, Ni, Cu, and Ca and the K/Ca ratio. The harvest date significantly affected Fe, Cu, Sr, K and K/Ca. The canopy position affected Fe, Ni, Zn, Sr, Ca, and K/Ca ratio, with a clear significant trend regarding the effect of canopy position only for Ca content (first and second year of the second harvest date) and K/Ca ratio (first year of both harvest dates). PCA analyses identified distinguishing features between apples, with differences defined specifically by AOP, TPC, TFC, Rb, Sr, Ca, and K/Ca on the PC 1 and Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, and Zn on PC 2.
Eggplant (Solanum melongena) is an economically important vegetable requiring investigation into its various genomic functions. The current limitation in the investigation of genomic function in ...eggplant is the lack of effective tools available for conducting functional assays. Virus‐induced gene silencing (VIGS) has played a critical role in the functional genetic analyses. In this paper, TRV‐mediated VIGS was successfully elicited in eggplant. We first cloned the CDS sequence of PDS (PHYTOENE DESATURASE) in eggplant and then silenced the PDS gene. Photo‐bleaching was shown on the newly‐developed leaves four weeks after agroinoculation, indicating that VIGS can be used to silence genes in eggplant. To further illustrate the reliability of VIGS in eggplant, we selected Chl H, Su and CLA1 as reporters to elicit VIGS using the high‐pressure spray method. Suppression of Chl H and Su led to yellow leaves, while the depletion of CLA1 resulted in albino. In conclusion, four genes, PDS, Chl H, Su (Sulfur), CLA1, were down‐regulated significantly by VIGS, indicating that the VIGS system can be successfully applied in eggplant and is a reliable tool for the study of gene function.
At persent, multi expandable patching can’t be operated below the patched period of casing damage wells, a varible diameter expandable cone has been designed, so expandable tools can be put into ...wells with small diameter and expanded with large diameter which can achieve the purpose of patching for casing damage wells for many times. The indoor prototype testing showed that the tools had a suitable structure, start-up pressure was 3–5MPa,complete closure pressure was 52MPa,maximum overall diameter increased from 188 mm to 220 mm, with the same size of conventional expandable cone, expandable rate was 17.02%.The research results showed that expandable force increases linearly with the increase of thrust, expandable tools could be put into wells with small diameter and expanded with large diameter with the help of variable diameter expandable cone, it should have a broad application prospect after rudcing the closure pressure.
Genotype is generally determined by the co-expression of diverse genes and multiple regulatory pathways in plants. Gene co-expression analysis combining with physiological trait data provides very ...important information about the gene function and regulatory mechanism. L-Ascorbic acid （AsA）, which is an essential nutrient component for human health and plant metabolism, plays key roles in diverse biological processes such as cell cycle, cell expansion, stress resistance, hormone synthesis, and signaling. Here, we applied a weighted gene correlation network analysis approach based on gene expression values and AsA content data in ripening tomato （Solanum lycopersicum L.） fruit with different AsA content levels, which leads to identification of AsA relevant modules and vital genes in AsA regulatory pathways. Twenty- four modules were compartmentalized according to gene expression profiling. Among these modules, one negatively related module containing genes involved in redox processes and one positively related module enriched with genes involved in AsA biosynthetic and recycling pathways were further analyzed. The present work herein indicates that redox pathways as well as hormone-signal pathways are closely correlated with AsA accumulation in ripening tomato fruit, and allowed us to prioritize candidate genes for follow-up studies to dissect this interplay at the biochemical and molecular level.
Tomato serves as the model plant for studying fruit ripening and quality formation including pigment, texture, flavor, aroma and nutrition. The ripening of tomato fruit results from the selective ...expression of ripening-related genes, which are strictly regulated by transcription factors (TFs), such as RIPENING INHIBITOR (RIN), NON-RIPENING (NOR) and COLORLESS NON-RIPENING (CNR). Understanding the transcriptional network has important biological significance for the fruit ripening regulation, which can help improve fruit quality and commodity value, and improve the utilization of agricultural resources. The molecular mechanism of TF control, a redundant regulatory network, has been extensively studied thanks to advancements in scientific research technologies. Here, we focus on the synergistic or antagonistic regulation of TFs in tomato fruit ripening, including the relationship between TFs and the regulatory patterns of ripening-related target genes, which is supported by sufficient evidence.
•Tomato serves as the model plant for studying fruit quality formation.•Fruit quality formation is regulated by a series of transcription factors.•Interactions between transcription factors related to fruit quality.
Summary
In recent years, the type II CRISPR system has become a widely used and robust technique to implement site‐directed mutagenesis in a variety of species including model and crop plants. ...However, few studies manipulated metabolic pathways in plants using the CRISPR system. Here, we introduced the pYLCRISPR/Cas9 system with one or two single‐site guide RNAs to target the tomato phytoene desaturase gene. An obvious albino phenotype was observed in T0 regenerated plants, and more than 61% of the desired target sites were edited. Furthermore, we manipulated the γ‐aminobutyric acid (GABA) shunt in tomatoes using a multiplex pYLCRISPR/Cas9 system that targeted five key genes. Fifty‐three genome‐edited plants were obtained following single plant transformation, and these samples represented single to quadruple mutants. The GABA accumulation in both the leaves and fruits of genomically edited lines was significantly enhanced, and the GABA content in the leaves of quadruple mutants was 19‐fold higher than that in wild‐type plants. Our data demonstrate that the multiplex CRISPR/Cas9 system can be exploited to precisely edit tomato genomic sequences and effectively create multisite knockout mutations, which could shed new light on plant metabolic engineering regulations.
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