title: CHS silencing suggests a negative cross-talk between wax and flavonoid pathways in tomato fruit cuticle.
abstract: Tomato fruits (Solanum lycopersicum L.) accumulate flavonoids in their cuticle and epidermal cells during ripening. These flavonoids come from de novo biosynthesis due to a significant increase in chalcone synthase (CHS) activity during ripening. Virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS) of tomato fruits have been used to down-regulate SlCHS expression during ripening and analyze the effects at the epidermal and cuticle level. Besides the expected change in fruit color due to a lack of flavonoids incorporated to the cuticle, several other modifications such as a decrease in the amount of cutin and polysaccharides were observed. These indicate a role for either flavonoids or CHS in the alteration of the expression levels of some genes involved in cuticle biosynthesis. Moreover, a negative interaction between the 2 cuticle components, flavonoids and waxes, suggests a relationship between these 2 metabolic pathways.
authors.affiliation: a IHSM UMA-CSIC; Departamento de Biología Molecular y Bioquímica; Universidad de Málaga ; Málaga , Spain.
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heredia
authors.forename: José Alejandro
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Heredia-Guerrero
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Domínguez
mesh_terms: D000217:Acyltransferases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005419:Flavonoids / Q000378:metabolism*; D005638:Fruit / Q000378:metabolism*; D020868:Gene Silencing; D018551:Solanum lycopersicum / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D019441:Plant Epidermis / Q000378:metabolism; D020239:Receptor Cross-Talk; D014885:Waxes / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D005419:Flavonoids; D014885:Waxes; D000217:Acyltransferases; C020141:flavanone synthetase
keywords: cutin; flavonoids; plant cuticle; tomato; waxes