Differential gene expression at different fruit ripening stages in two tomato near isogenic lines differing in fruit shelf life

DI GIACOMO, MELISA; RODRÍGUEZ, GUSTAVO RUBÉN; PEREIRA DA COSTA, JAVIER H

Foz do Iguazú

Congreso; International Congress of Genetics 2018; 2018

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)has emerged as a model to study fruit ripening and to investigate the molecularbases of fruit quality traits, such as shelf life. The aim was to study thedifferential gene expression at mature green (MG) and red ripe (RR) ripeningstage in two near isogenic lines of tomato (NILs) differing in fruit shelf life.The NILs have introgressed chromosomal regions of the wild accession LA722 (S. pimpinellifolium L.) into the geneticbackground of Caimanta (CAI, S.lycopersicum). NIL115-PP and NIL115-CC have wild and cultivated segmentsaround marker SSR155 respectively, associated with long shelf life. Standardprotocols for cDNA-AFLP were applied using three different primer combinations.A 52% and 42% of polymorphism were found when the NILs were compared betweenthem at each ripening stage. Exclusive transcript derived fragments (TDFs) weredetected for genotypes. Total number of TDFs for NIL115-PP was higher than forNIL115-CC, at both MG and RR stages. When two ripening stages were comparedwithin each genotype, the 91% and 80% out of TDFs (NIL115-PP and NIL115- CC,respectively) displayed altered expression patterns during ripening. The numberof exclusive TDFs at MG was higher than RR in both genotypes. We conclude that several genes withputative role in fruit shelf life are differentially expressed between thesetomato NILs. On the other hand, different expression pattern was revelledduring fruit ripening.