Transcription factors regulating alkaloid biosynthesis in plants

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26440144
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Plant molecular biology/Plant physiology
• Research Institution: Nara Institute of Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Shoji Tsubasa 奈良先端科学技術大学院大学, バイオサイエンス研究科, 准教授 (40343272)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: ステロイドアルカロイド / トマト / 転写因子

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Steroidal glycoalkaloid (SGA) alpha-tomatine with anti-nutritional activity, accumulates in tomato. Tomato genes encoding Jasmonate-Responsive Etheylene Response Factors (JREs), mostly clustered on chromosome I, were induced with methyl jasmonate treatment. Expression of SGA biosynthesis genes and accumulation of SGAs were markedly increased and decreased by overexpression and dominant suppression of JREs, respectively, implicating that JREs positively regulate SGA biosynthesis genes at transcript level. Transient transactivation assay in tomato fruits demonstrated that JREs activated the promoters of SGA biosynthetic DWF5 and GAME4 genes. The JRE-dependent activation of the promoters were clearly cancelled by mutations at JRE-binding sites found in proximal upstream regions of the genes. Putative JRE-binding elements predicted in promoter regions were found to be enriched significantly among a series of JRE-regulated genes.

Free Research Field

植物分子生物学