Regulations on growth and development in tomato cotyledon, flower and fruit via destruction of miR396 with short tandem target mimic.
Despite many studies about functions of miR396 were concentrated on cotyledon and leaf growth and development, only few researches were focused on flower and fruit, especially for fleshy fruit, for example, tomato fruit. Here, the roles of miR396 throughout the growth and development of tomato plant were explored with combining bioinformatics and transgene-mediated methods. In tomato, miR396 had two mature types (miR396a and miR396b), and miR396a expressed significantly higher than miR396b in cotyledon, flower, sepal and fruit. Generally, plant growth and development were regulated by miR396 via growth-regulating factors (GRFs). In tomato, all 13 SlGRFs were analyzed comprehensively, including phylogeny, domain and expression patterns. To investigate the roles of miR396 further, STTM396a/396a-88 was over-expressed in tomato, which induced miR396a and miR396b both dramatical down-regulation, and the target GRFs general up-regulation. As a result, the flowers, sepals and fruits all obviously became bigger. Most significantly, the sepal length of transgenic lines #3 and #4 at 39 days post-anthesis was separately increased 75% and 81%, and the fruit weight was added 45% and 39%, respectively. Overall, these results revealed novel roles of miR396 in regulating flower and fruit development, and provided a new potential way for improving tomato fruit yield.
College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: caody2012@126.com.
Dongyan
D
Cao
College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: 503201535@qq.com.
Jiao
J
Wang
College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: juzhengcau@126.com.
Zheng
Z
Ju
College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: qqliu2016@163.com.
Qingqing
Q
Liu
College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: lishan@cau.edu.cn.
Shan
S
Li
College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: chenfl@cau.edu.cn.
Huiqin
H
Tian
College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: daqifu@126.com.
Daqi
D
Fu
College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: hlzhu@cau.edu.cn.
Hongliang
H
Zhu
College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: lyb@cau.edu.cn.
Yunbo
Y
Luo
College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China. Electronic address: zbz@cau.edu.cn.
Benzhong
B
Zhu
D019295:Computational Biology; D018548:Cotyledon / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology; D015536:Down-Regulation; D035264:Flowers / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology; D005638:Fruit / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology; D015870:Gene Expression; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D018506:Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; D018551:Solanum lycopersicum / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D030821:Plants, Genetically Modified; D018749:RNA, Plant / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D019076:Transgenes; D015854:Up-Regulation
D035683:MicroRNAs; D010940:Plant Proteins; D018749:RNA, Plant; D014157:Transcription Factors
Cotyledon; Fruit weight; Growth-regulating factor; Sepal length; miR396