Metabolism of Auxins during Fruit Development and Ripening

Abstract

We had proposed to look at several aspects of auxin metabolism in fruit tissues: 1) IAA biosynthesis from tryptophan and IAA biosynthesis via the non-tryptophan pathway; 2) changes in the capacity to form conjugates and catabolites of auxin at different times during fruit development and; 3) the effects of modifying auxin metabolism in fruit tissues. The latter work focused primarily on the maize iaglu gene, with initial studies also using a bacterial gene for hydrolysis of IAA-aspartate. These metabolic and molecular studies were necessary to define potential benefits of auxin metabolism modification and will direct future efforts for crop improvement by genetic methods. An in vitro system was developed for the production of tomato fruit in culture starting from immature flowers in order to ascertain the effect of auxin modification on fruit ripening. IAA supplied to the fruit culture media prior to breaker stage resulted in an increase in the time period between breaker and red-ripe stages from 7 days without additional IAA to 12 days when 10-5 M IAA was added. These results suggest that significant changes in the ripening period could be obtained by alteration of auxin relationships in tomato fruit. We generated transgenic tomato plants that express either the maize iaglu gene or reduced levels of the gene that encodes the enzyme IAA-glucose synthetase. A modified shuttle vector pBI 121 expressing the maize iaglu gene in both sense and antisense orientations under a 35S promoter was used for the study. The sense plants showed total lack of root initiation and development. The antisense transgenic plants, on the other hand, had unusually well developed root systems at early stages in development. Analysis showed that the amount and activity of the endogenous 75 kDa IAGLU protein was reduced in these plants and consequently these plants had reduced levels of IAA-glucose and lower overall esterified IAA.