Award details

Regulating Tomato quality through Expression

Reference	BBS/E/J/000CA598
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Cathie Martin
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	John Innes Centre
Department	John Innes Centre Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	69,906
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/06/2015
End date	31/03/2017
Duration	21 months

Abstract

The twin objectives of RegulaTomE are to determine the importance of transcriptional regulation of the metabolic pathways defining quality traits in tomato and to identify such transcriptional regulators at the molecular level. The selected quality traits include antioxidant capacity which impacts shelf life and nutritional value as well as traits determining fruit flavor and over-ripening which influence organoleptic properties and shelf-life. RegulaTomE will use the natural variation available in introgression lines (ILs) resulting from wild species crosses to tomato to assess the importance of transcriptional regulation, identify additional regulatory genes and assess underlying genetic and epigenetic variation. RegulaTomE will assess the potential for direct or indirect use of natural variation from an untapped wild species resource for crop improvement. To identify genes regulating metabolic pathways using the Solanum lycopersicoides ILs, and to capture genetic and epigenetic variation for application to gene discovery and tomato improvement, resources need to be developed, including a genome reference sequence for S. lycopersicoides and metabolite, DNA methylation and transcriptome profiles of IL fruit. RegulaTomE will lead to regulatory gene identification and new tools for metabolic engineering of fruit quality. The natural variation in fruit quality revealed by the S.lycopersicoides ILs could be applied to tomato improvement either directly through introgression into cultivated varieties or indirectly through the identification of target loci and corresponding allelic variation making positive contributions to quality traits within S. lycopersicum breeding germplasm. The outputs of RegulaTomE will provide a framework of understanding as well as tools, in the form of genes, target loci and molecular markers, to support development of longer shelf-life, more nutritious and more flavorsome fleshy fruits in other horticultural crops.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Crop Science, Plant Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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