title: Susceptibility of the tomato mutant high pigment-2dg (hp-2dg) to Orobanche spp. infection.
abstract: The consumption of natural products with potential health benefits has been continuously growing, and enhanced pigmentation is of major economic importance in fruits and vegetables. The tomato hp-2 ( dg ) is an important mutant line that has been introgressed into commercial tomato cultivars marketed as lycopene rich tomatoes (LRT) because of their enhanced fruit pigmentation, attributed to higher levels of carotenoids, including lycopene. Strigolactones are signaling compounds that mediate host finding in root parasitic plants and are biosynthetically derived from carotenoids. Considering the high carotenoid content of the hp-2 ( dg ) mutant, we studied its susceptibility to the root parasite Orobanche. In a field experiment, the average number of Orobanche aegyptiaca plants growing on hp-2 ( dg ) was surprisingly significantly reduced compared with its isogenic wild-type counterpart. In vitro assays and LC-MS/MS analysis showed that this reduction was associated with a lower production of strigolactones, which apparently renders the high-carotenoid hp-2 ( dg ) mutant less susceptible to Orobanche.
authors.affiliation: Plant Research International, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Juan Antonio
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: López-Ráez
authors.forename: Tatsiana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Charnikhova
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mulder
authors.forename: Wouter
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kohlen
authors.forename: Raoul
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bino
authors.forename: Ilan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Levin
authors.forename: Harro
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bouwmeester
mesh_terms: D015107:4-Butyrolactone / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000032:analysis; D001947:Breeding; D002338:Carotenoids / Q000032:analysis*; D005638:Fruit / Q000737:chemistry; D018525:Germination / Q000187:drug effects; D000077276:Lycopene; D018551:Solanum lycopersicum / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics* / Q000469:parasitology*; D009154:Mutation; D031672:Orobanche / Q000254:growth & development*; D010935:Plant Diseases / Q000469:parasitology*; D018517:Plant Roots / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D002338:Carotenoids; D015107:4-Butyrolactone; D000077276:Lycopene