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Journal of Experimental Botany 2009 60(2):651-661; doi:10.1093/jxb/ern313
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© 2009 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This paper is available online free of all access charges (see http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/open_access.html for further details)

RESEARCH PAPER

A PLENA-like gene of peach is involved in carpel formation and subsequent transformation into a fleshy fruit

Alice Tadiello1, Anna Pavanello1, Dario Zanin1, Elisabetta Caporali2, Lucia Colombo2, Giuseppe L. Rotino3, Livio Trainotti1 and Giorgio Casadoro1,*

1Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy
2Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Milano, 20133 Milano, Italy
3CRA-ORL–Research Unit for Vegetable Crops, 26836 Montanaso Lombardo (LO), Italy

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: giorgio.casadoro{at}unipd.it

MADS-box genes have been shown to play a role in the formation of fruits, both in Arabidopsis and in tomato. In peach, two C-class MADS-box genes have been isolated. Both of them are expressed during flower and mesocarp development. Here a detailed analysis of a gene that belongs to the PLENA subfamily of MADS-box genes is shown. The expression of this PLENA-like gene (PpPLENA) increases during fruit ripening, and its ectopic expression in tomato plants causes the transformation of sepals into carpel-like structures that become fleshy and ripen like real fruits. Interestingly, the transgenic berries constitutively expressing the PpPLENA gene show an accelerated ripening, as judged by the expression of genes that are important for tomato fruit ripening. It is suggested that PpPLENA might interfere with the endogenous activity of TAGL1, thereby activating the fruit ripening pathway earlier compared with wild-type tomato plants.

Key words: C-type MADS-box genes, fruit ripening, gene expression, peach, PpPLENA gene, Prunus persica, TAGL1 gene, transgenic tomato

Received 15 September 2008; Revised 11 November 2008 Accepted 12 November 2008


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