Generation of sweeter tomato fruits by engineering a single transcription factor gene

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25292056
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Applied biochemistry
• Research Institution: Tohoku University
• Principal Investigator: Kusano Tomonobu 東北大学, 生命科学研究科, 教授 (40186383)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): Kojima Seiji 東北大学, 学際科学フロンティア研究所, 助教 (20745111)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: トマト / bZIP gene / 翻訳抑制 / 上流ORF / ショ糖 / 転写因子 / 高糖度化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Sucrose-induced repression of translation (SIRT), which is mediated by upstream open reading frames (uORFs), was initially reported in AtbZIP11. Here, two AtbZIP11 orthologous genes, SlbZIP1 and SlbZIP2, were identified in tomato. SlbZIP1 and SlbZIP2 contained several uORFs in the cDNA 5'-leader regions. The second uORFs were conserved and involved in SIRT. Tomato plants were transformed with binary vectors in which only the main open reading frames (ORFs) of SlbZIP1 and SlbZIP2 were placed under the control of the fruit-specific promoter. Growth and morphology of the resulting transgenic tomato plants were comparable to those of wild-type plants. Transgenic fruits were approximately 1.5-fold higher in sugar content than nontransgenic tomato fruits. In addition, the levels of several amino acids were higher in transgenic fruits than in wild-type fruits. This 'sweetening' technology is broadly applicable to other plants that utilize sucrose as a major translocation sugar.

Free Research Field

植物分子生物学