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The Transcript Factor EMB1444-like Affects Tomato Fruit Ripening by Regulating YELLOW-FRUITED TOMATO 1, a Core Component of Ethylene Signaling Transduction.

Weihua ZhaoShan WangWenzhen LiXuemeng ShanMuhammad NaeemLida ZhangLingxia Zhao
Published in: Journal of experimental botany (2023)
The fleshy fruit of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) are climacteric, and as such ethylene plays a pivotal role in their ripening and quality traits. In this study, a basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor, EMB1444-like, was found to induce the expression of YELLOW-FRUITED TOMATO 1 (YFT1), which encodes the SlEIN2 protein, a key element in the ethylene signaling pathway. Yeast one-hybrid (Y1H) and electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA) analyses revealed that EMB1444-like binds to the E-box (CACTTG, -1295 bp to -1290 bp upstream of ATG start codon) motif of the YFT1 promoter (pYFT1). Suppression of EMB1444-like expression in tomato lines (sledl) using RNA interference (RNAi) reduced ethylene production by lowering the expression of 1-AMINOCYCLOPROPANE- 1-CARBOXYLATE SYNTHASE 2/4 (ACS2/4) and ACC OXIDASE1 (ACO1) in a positive feedback loop. sledl tomato also showed differences in numerous quality traits related to fruit ripening, compared with wild type, such as delayed chromoplast differentiation, a decrease in carotenoid accumulation, and delayed fruit ripening in an ethylene-independent manner, or at least downstream from ripening mediated by YFT1/SlEIN2. This study elucidates the regulatory framework of fruit ripening in tomato, providing information that may be used to breed tomato hybrid cultivars with an optimal balance of shelf-life, durability, and high quality.
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