title: The arbuscular mycorrhizal status has an impact on the transcriptome profile and amino acid composition of tomato fruit.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is the most widespread association between plant roots and fungi in natural and agricultural ecosystems. This work investigated the influence of mycorrhization on the economically relevant part of the tomato plant, by analyzing its impact on the physiology of the fruit. To this aim, a combination of phenological observations, transcriptomics (Microarrays and qRT-PCR) and biochemical analyses was used to unravel the changes that occur on fruits from Micro-Tom tomato plants colonized by the AM fungus Glomus mosseae.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mycorrhization accelerated the flowering and fruit development and increased the fruit yield. Eleven transcripts were differentially regulated in the fruit upon mycorrhization, and the mycorrhiza-responsive genes resulted to be involved in nitrogen and carbohydrate metabolism as well as in regulation and signal transduction. Mycorrhization has increased the amino acid abundance in the fruit from mycorrhizal plants, with glutamine and asparagine being the most responsive amino acids.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The obtained results offer novel data on the systemic changes that are induced by the establishment of AM symbiosis in the plant, and confirm the work hypothesis that AM fungi may extend their influence from the root to the fruit.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale, Università degli Studi di Torino and IPP-CNR, Viale Mattioli 25, 10125 Torino, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Salvioli
authors.forename: Inès
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Zouari
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chalot
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bonfante
mesh_terms: D001216:Asparagine / Q000737:chemistry*; D050260:Carbohydrate Metabolism; D035264:Flowers / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development; D005638:Fruit / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000382:microbiology; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D017343:Genes, Plant; D005973:Glutamine / Q000737:chemistry*; D018551:Solanum lycopersicum / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000382:microbiology*; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D038821:Mycorrhizae / Q000254:growth & development*; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000737:chemistry; D018749:RNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013559:Symbiosis; D013997:Time Factors; D059467:Transcriptome
chemical_list: D018749:RNA, Plant; D005973:Glutamine; D001216:Asparagine; D009584:Nitrogen