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Skin colour, carotenogenesis and chlorophyll degradation mutant alleles: genetic orchestration behind the fruit colour variation in tomato

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Abstract

The genetics underlying the fruit colour variation in tomato is an interesting area of both basic and applied research in plant biology. There are several factors, like phytohormones, environmental signals and epistatic interactions between genes, which modulate the ripe fruit colour in tomato. However, three aspects: genetic regulation of skin pigmentation, carotenoid biosynthesis and ripening-associated chlorophyll degradation in tomato fruits are of pivotal importance. Different genes along with their mutant alleles governing the aforementioned characters have been characterized in detail. Moreover, the interaction of these mutant alleles has been explored, which has paved the way for developing novel tomato genotypes with unique fruit colour and beneficial phytonutrient composition. In this article, we review the genes and the corresponding mutant alleles underlying the variation in tomato skin pigmentation, carotenoid biosynthesis and ripening-associated chlorophyll degradation. The possibility of generating novel fruit colour-variants using different combinations of these mutant alleles is documented. Furthermore, the involvement of some other mutant alleles (like those governing purple fruit colour and high fruit pigmentation), not belonging to the aforementioned three categories, are discussed in brief. The simplified representation of the assembled information in this article should not only help a broad range of readers in their basic understanding of this complex phenomenon but also trigger them for further exploration of the same. The article would be useful for genetic characterization of fruit colour-variants and molecular breeding for fruit colour improvement in tomato using the well-characterized mutant alleles.

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Acknowledgement

The authors thank BAU Sabour and BCKV Nadia for providing facilities. PH thanks Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India for providing financial assistance through sanctioning the research project entitled: ‘Enhancement of nutritional quality of tomato by increasing lycopene and anthocyanin contents through mutant genes’. AM thanks Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for providing fellowship during his postgraduate studies at BAU. The authors acknowledge all the scientists whose published (or unpublished) works could not be cited in this article due to space constrains. This article bears the BAU COMMUNICATION NO. 819/2020.

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TC conceptualized and prepared the manuscript. PH critically supplemented the manuscript. SA, DM, AM and SR assisted in preparing the manuscript. All authors read the final version of the manuscript, provided necessary suggestions and approved it for publication.

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Correspondence to Tirthartha Chattopadhyay.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Communicated by Wusheng Liu.

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299_2020_2650_MOESM1_ESM.tif

Fig. Sf1 Pictorial representation of mutations in the SlMYB12 gene and resultant alleles governing skin pigmentation in ripe tomato fruits. The of colourless skin phenotype is shown as cartoon (TIF 3246 KB)

299_2020_2650_MOESM2_ESM.tif

Fig. Sf2 Pictorial representation of mutations in the genes that reduce the overall carotenoid content in tomato fruits. a. Mutations in the IDI1 gene and resultant alleles b. Mutations in the PSY1 gene and resultant alleles. The apricot/fcd and yellow flesh mutant phenotypes are shown as cartoons (TIF 5046 KB)

299_2020_2650_MOESM3_ESM.tif

Fig. Sf3 Pictorial representation of mutations in the genes that modify carotenoid composition in tomato fruits. a. Mutations in the CrtISO gene and resultant alleles b. Mutations in the CYC-B gene and resultant gain-of-function and loss-of-function alleles c. Mutation in the LCY-E gene and resultant allele. The Beta, og, ogc and Delta mutant phenotypes are shown as cartoons (TIF 6993 KB)

299_2020_2650_MOESM4_ESM.tif

Fig. Sf4 Pictorial representation of mutations in the SGR gene and resultant alleles governing chlorophyll degradation in ripe tomato fruits. The green flesh mutant phenotype is shown as cartoon (TIF 3503 KB)

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Chattopadhyay, T., Hazra, P., Akhtar, S. et al. Skin colour, carotenogenesis and chlorophyll degradation mutant alleles: genetic orchestration behind the fruit colour variation in tomato. Plant Cell Rep 40, 767–782 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-020-02650-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00299-020-02650-9

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