The tomato early fruit specific gene Lefsm1 defines a novel class of plant-specific SANT/MYB domain proteins.
We describe here a novel plant-specific gene, Lefsm1 (fruit SANT/MYB-like 1) harboring a single SANT/MYB domain. The expression of Lefsm1 is specific to the very early stages of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) fruit development. Ectopic expression of Lefsm1 results in severe developmental alterations manifested in retarded growth, and reduced apical dominance during tomato and Arabidopsis seedling development. A promoter sequence residing 1.0 kb upstream to the translation initiation codon confers the organ-specific expression of the gene. Lefsm1 belongs to a novel small gene family consisting of five to six members in tomato, Arabidopsis and rice. The SANT/MYB domain of LeFSM1 and its orthologs in Arabidopsis and rice differs from that of all other plant or animal MYB proteins and from the SANT domains found in part of the chromatin remodeling proteins. Together, our results indicate that Lefsm1 is a founding member of a small family of proteins containing a novel MYB/SANT domain which is likely to participate in the regulation of a plant-specific developmental program.
Barg
Rivka
R
Department of Plant Genetics, Institute of Field and Garden Crops, The Volcani Center, ARO, P.O.Box 6, Bet Dagan, 50250, Israel. rivkab@volcani.agri.gov.il
Sobolev
Irina
I
Eilon
Tali
T
Gur
Amit
A
Chmelnitsky
Inna
I
Shabtai
Sara
S
Grotewold
Erich
E
Salts
Yehiam
Y
D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017360:Arabidopsis / Q000378:metabolism; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D032461:Chromosomes, Plant; D005638:Fruit / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D018507:Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental / Q000502:physiology; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Q000502:physiology*; D018551:Solanum lycopersicum / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D005810:Multigene Family; D010641:Phenotype; D010802:Phylogeny; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics*; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013997:Time Factors
D010940:Plant Proteins