A biochemical and proteomic approach to the analysis of tomato mutant fruit growth

Milena Marjanovic,Radmila Stikic,Sladjana Savic,Ivana Petrovic,Biljana Vucelic-Radovic,Zorica Jovanovic

doi:10.2298/botserb2101071m

Milena Marjanovic, Radmila Stikic + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.2298/botserb2101071m

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Abstract

To assess the effects of ABA deficiency on tomato fruit growth, the ABA mutant flacca was grown in an optimal soil water regime and various analyzes were performed, including morphological (fruit number, diameter and fruit biomass), physiological (duration of growth and fruit growth rate), biochemical (ABA accumulation, enzyme cell wall peroxidase activity) as well as proteomics. The fruit growth analysis showed that the slower fruit growth rate and development resulted in smaller flacca fruits in comparison to the wild-type fruits. The comparison of the temporal dynamics of cell wall peroxidase activity and ABA content in our experiment indicated an opposite relationship during fruit development. Proteomic analysis and the down-regulation of most proteins from carbon and amino acid metabolism, the translation and processing of proteins, energy metabolism and cell wall-related metabolism in the flacca fruits compared to the wild type, indicated reduced metabolic flux which reflected a slower fruit growth and development and reduced fruit size in the ABA mutant. These findings also indicated that ABA limited carbon sources, which could be responsible for the reduced fruit growth and size of ABA-deficient tomato fruits. The up-regulation of sulfur and oxygen-evolving enhancer proteins in the flacca fruits implicated the maintenance of photosynthesis in the late expansion phase, which slows down transition to the ripening stage. The majority of antioxidative and stress defence proteins were down-regulated in the flacca fruits, which could be related to the role of ABA in the activity of different antioxidative enzymes as well as in regulating cell wall expansion and the cessation of fruit growth.

Highlights

The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most widely grown vegetables in the world and its fruits are of special economic importance because they are used both as fresh vegetables and as a component in the food processing industry (Faostat 2019)
A similar trend was observed for the content of organic acids, other intermediates of the TCA cycle and mostly for the amino acids in the not mutant. All these findings indicated that abscisic acid (ABA) limited carbon sources, which could be responsible for reduced fruit growth and size as well as for the quality of ABA-deficient tomato fruits
Fruit growth analysis indicated that the slower fruit growth rate of the flacca fruits was reflected in reduced fruit size as well as prolonged fruit development compared to the wild type

Summary

Introduction

The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the most widely grown vegetables in the world and its fruits are of special economic importance because they are used both as fresh vegetables and as a component in the food processing industry (Faostat 2019). In addition to its economic and nutritional importance, the tomato has become a model for the study of fleshy fruit development and growth (Quinet et al 2019). Tomato fruit growth is a complex process depending on the interaction between different factors including physiological, biochemical and metabolic processes which are under the influence of internal (genotypic) 72 | vol 45 (1). According to the study carried out by Azzi et al (2015), final fruit size depends on developmental phases of cell division and cell expansion, which are under the control of complex interactions between hormone signaling and carbon partitioning, which establish the determinants of the quality of ripe fruit. Fruit development and fruit weight are intimately connected to its composition of primary and secondary metabolites (Tohge et al 2014)

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