title: The genetic basis of fruit morphology in horticultural crops: lessons from tomato and melon.
abstract: Fruits represent an important part of the human diet and show extensive variation in size and shape between and within cultivated species. The genetic basis of such variation has been studied most extensively in tomato, where currently six quantitative trait loci (QTLs) involving these traits have been fine-mapped and the genes underlying the QTLs identified. The genes responsible for the cloned QTLs belong to families with a few to many members. FASCIATED is encoded by a member of the YABBY family, CNR/FW2.2 by a member of the Cell Number Regulator family, SlKLUH/FW3.2 by a cytochrome P450 of the 78A class (CYP78A), LOCULE NUMBER by a member of the WOX family including WUSCHEL, OVATE by a member of the Ovate Family Proteins (OFP), and SUN by a member of the IQ domain family. A high portion of the history and current diversity in fruit morphology among tomato cultivars can be explained by modifications at four of these cloned QTLs. In melon, a number of QTLs involved in fruit morphology have been mapped, but the molecular basis for these QTLs is unknown. In the present review, we examine the current knowledge on the molecular basis of fruit morphology in tomato and transfer that information in order to define candidate genes of melon fruit shape and size QTLs. We hypothesize that different members of the gene families identified in tomato may have a role in the regulation of fruit morphology in other species. We anchored the published melon QTL map on the genome sequence and identified the melon family members of the six cloned tomato QTLs in the genome. We investigated the co-localization of melon fruit morphology QTLs and the candidate genes. We found that QTLs for fruit weight co-localized frequently with members of the CNR/FW2.2 and KLUH/FW3.2 families, as well as co-localizations between OFP family members and fruit-shape QTLs, making this family the most suitable to explain fruit shape variation among melon accessions.
authors: Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas (IBMCP). Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV)-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Ciudad Politécnica de la Innovación (CPI), Ingeniero Fausto Elio s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain amonforte@ibmcp.upv.es.
authors: Antonio J
authors: AJ
authors: Monforte
authors: Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Plantas (IBMCP). Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV)-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Ciudad Politécnica de la Innovación (CPI), Ingeniero Fausto Elio s/n, 46022 Valencia, Spain.
authors: Aurora
authors: A
authors: Diaz
authors: Centre for Research in Agricultural Genomics (CRAG) CSIC-IRTA-UAB-UB, Campus UAB, 08193 Bellaterra (Barcelona), Spain.
authors: Ana
authors: A
authors: Caño-Delgado
authors: Department of Horticulture and Crop Science, The Ohio State University/OARDC, 1680 Madison Avenue, Wooster, OH-44691, USA.
authors: Esther
authors: E
authors: van der Knaap
mesh_terms: D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D019662:Cucurbitaceae / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D005638:Fruit / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D018551:Solanum lycopersicum / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D040641:Quantitative Trait Loci / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D010940:Plant Proteins
keywords: Candidate gene; QTL; domestication; mapping; shape; size.