Integrated approaches to understanding tomato glandular trichome metabolism

AST, ROBERT L (A) SCHILMILLER, ANTHONY L (A) SCHAUVINHOLD (ABATEDAGA), INES (B) KIM, JEONGWOON (A) SHI, FENG (A) SCHMIDT, ADAM (B) JONES, DANIEL (A) PICHERSKY, ERAN (B)

Honolulu, Hawaii, EE.UU.

Simposio; Plant Biology Mini Symposium; 2009

Amer. Asociat. Plant Biologists

Glandular secreting trichomes are structurally diverse chemical factories found on the surfaces of aerial organs of many plants1. Trichomes are implicated in a variety of adaptive processes including defense against herbivores and microorganisms as well as in ion homeostasis. They are excellent experimental systems for the discovery of the enzymes and pathways responsible for the synthesis of specialized metabolites. A multi-laboratory collaborative group is taking a cross-disciplinary approach to study these biosynthetic factories on the leaves and stems of several Solanum species, including cultivated tomato. These approaches have already yielded discoveries of new pathways and enzymes and genes As an example, evidence will be presented that monoterpenes in the trichomes are synthesized from neryl diphosphate (NPP) rather than geranyl diphosphate (GPP). Data from screening and mapping of mutants and introgression lines with altered chemistry, EST sequencing and proteomics, and biochemical assays will illustrate how these results and others are being obtained.