A common genetic mechanism underlies morphological diversity in fruits and other plant organs.

Yupeng Pan, Esther van der Knaap, Tea Meulia, Antonio J Monforte, Johan Willemsen, Herman van Eck, Shelley H Jansky, Yiqun Weng, C Robin Buell, Dennis Halterman, Courtney P Leisner, Shan Wu, Aurora Díaz, M J Gonzalo, Nathan K Taitano, Eudald Illa-Berenguer, Manohar Chakrabarti, Hyun Jung Kim, Gustavo R Rodríguez, Neda Keyhaninejad, Biyao Zhang

Journal: Nature communications 2019;9(1):4734

PMID: 30413711

Abstract

Shapes of edible plant organs vary dramatically among and within crop plants. To explain and ultimately employ this variation towards crop improvement, we determined the genetic, molecular and cellular bases of fruit shape diversity in tomato. Through positional cloning, protein interaction studies, and genome editing, we report that OVATE Family Proteins and TONNEAU1 Recruiting Motif proteins regulate cell division patterns in ovary development to alter final fruit shape. The physical interactions between the members of these two families are necessary for dynamic relocalization of the protein complexes to different cellular compartments when expressed in tobacco leaf cells. Together with data from other domesticated crops and model plant species, the protein interaction studies provide possible mechanistic insights into the regulation of morphological variation in plants and a framework that may apply to organ growth in all plant species.

Address: Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, The Ohio State University, 1680 Madison Ave, Wooster, OH, 44691, USA.; Boyce Thompson Institute, 533 Tower Rd, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA.; Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Genomics, University of Georgia, 111 Riverbend Rd, Athens, GA, 30602, USA.; Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias Agrarias de Rosario, Cátedra de Genética Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias UNR, Campo Experimental Villarino, S2125ZAA, Zavalla, Santa Fe, Argentina.; Division of SMART Horticulture, Yonam College, Cheonan, 31005, South Korea.; Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40506, USA.; Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas, Universitat Politècnica de València-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Ingeniero Fausto Elio s/n, 46022, Valencia, Spain.; Unidad de Hortofruticultura, Instituto Agroalimentario de Aragón, CITA-Universidad de Zaragoza, Avenida de Montañana 930, 50059, Zaragoza, Spain.; Horticulture Department, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.; Plant Biology Department, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA.; Vegetable Crops Research Unit, USDA-ARS, 1575 Linden Drive, Madison, WI, 53706, USA.; Plant Breeding, Wageningen University and Research, P.O.Box 386, 6700 AJ, Wageningen, The Netherlands.; Molecular and Cellular Imaging Center, The Ohio State University, 1680 Madison Ave, Wooster, OH, 44691, USA.; Department of Plant Pathology, The Ohio State University, 1680 Madison Ave, Wooster, OH, 44691, USA.; Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, The Ohio State University, 1680 Madison Ave, Wooster, OH, 44691, USA. [email protected].; Institute of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Genomics, University of Georgia, 111 Riverbend Rd, Athens, GA, 30602, USA. [email protected].; Department of Horticulture, University of Georgia, 3111 Carlton Rd, Athens, GA, 30602, USA. [email protected].
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