title: Ectopic expression of an apple apomixis-related gene MhFIE induces co-suppression and results in abnormal vegetative and reproductive development in tomato.
abstract: It has been well documented that FERTILIZATION-INDEPENDENT ENDOSPERM (FIE) plays important regulatory roles in diverse developmental processes in model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. However, it is largely unknown how FIE genes function in economically important crops. In this study, MhFIE gene, which was previously isolated from apomictic tea crabapple (Malus hupehensis Redh. var. pingyiensis), was introduced into tomato. The hemizygous transgenic tomato lines produced curly leaves and decreased in seed germination. In addition, the co-suppression of the transgenic MhFIE and endogenous (SlFIE) genes occurred in homozygous transgenic tomatoes. As a result, FIE silencing brought about abnormal phenotypes during reproductive development in tomato, such as increased sepal and petal numbers in flower, a fused ovule and pistil and parthenocarpic fruit formation. A yeast two-hybrid assay and bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) demonstrated that MhFIE interacted with a tomato protein, EZ2 (SlEZ2). Its ectopic expression and SlFIE co-suppression notably influenced the expression of genes associated with leaf, flower, and fruit development. Therefore, together with other PcG proteins, FIE was involved in the regulation of vegetative and reproductive development by modulating the expression of related genes in plants.
authors.affiliation: National Key Laboratory of Crop Biology, National Research Center for Apple Engineering and Technology, College of Horticulture Science and Engineering, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai-An, Shandong 271018, China.
authors.forename: Dan-Dan
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Qing-Long
authors.initials: QL
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Mou-Jing
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Ke-Qin
authors.initials: KQ
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Yu-Jin
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Hao
mesh_terms: D060832:Apomixis; D035264:Flowers / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D005638:Fruit / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D015870:Gene Expression; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant / Q000235:genetics*; D018525:Germination; D018551:Solanum lycopersicum / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000378:metabolism; D027845:Malus / Q000235:genetics*; D010641:Phenotype; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D034622:RNA Interference; D018749:RNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012098:Reproduction; D012639:Seeds / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000378:metabolism; D014170:Transformation, Genetic; D020798:Two-Hybrid System Techniques
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins; D018749:RNA, Plant