tomato early fruit specific gene Lefsm1 defines a novel class of plant-specific SANT/MYB domain proteins

• Published in: Planta Vol. 221; no. 2; pp. 197 - 211
• Main Authors: Barg, R, Sobolev, I, Gur, A, Chmelnitsky, I, Shabtai, S, Grotewold, E, Salts, Y
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin Springer-Verlag 01.05.2005; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Amino Acid Sequence; amino acid sequences; Arabidopsis; Arabidopsis - metabolism; Arabidopsis thaliana; Biological and medical sciences; Chromosome Mapping; Chromosomes, Plant; Complementary DNA; Economic plant physiology; Flowering; Fructification, ripening. Postharvest physiology; Fruit - growth & development; Fruit - metabolism; Fruiting; Fruits; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental - physiology; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant - physiology; gene overexpression; Genetics; Growth and development; Lycopersicon esculentum; Lycopersicon esculentum - genetics; Lycopersicon esculentum - growth & development; Lycopersicon esculentum - metabolism; Molecular Sequence Data; Multigene Family; nucleotide sequences; Open reading frames; Oryza sativa; Ovaries; Phenotype; Phylogeny; plant biochemistry; plant genetics; plant proteins; Plant Proteins - biosynthesis; Plant Proteins - genetics; Plants; promoter regions; Proteins; Rice; Seedlings; Sequence Alignment; sequence analysis; Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; Solanum lycopersicum var. lycopersicum; Time Factors; Tomatoes; Transgenic plants; Fruit; Arabidopsis; Growth; Lycopersicon; Gene expression; Promoter; Gene; Cruciferae; Dicotyledones; Angiospermae; Lycopersicon esculentum; Development; Spermatophyta; Solanaceae; Apical dominance; Fruit development; Rice
• ISSN: 0032-0935; 1432-2048
• DOI: 10.1007/s00425-004-1433-0

We describe here a novel plant-specific gene, Lefsm1 (fruit SANT/MYB-like 1) harboring a single SANT/MYB domain. The expression of Lefsm1 is specific to the very early stages of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) fruit development. Ectopic expression of Lefsm1 results in severe developmental alterations manifested in retarded growth, and reduced apical dominance during tomato and Arabidopsis seedling development. A promoter sequence residing 1.0 kb upstream to the translation initiation codon confers the organ-specific expression of the gene. Lefsm1 belongs to a novel small gene family consisting of five to six members in tomato, Arabidopsis and rice. The SANT/MYB domain of LeFSM1 and its orthologs in Arabidopsis and rice differs from that of all other plant or animal MYB proteins and from the SANT domains found in part of the chromatin remodeling proteins. Together, our results indicate that Lefsm1 is a founding member of a small family of proteins containing a novel MYB/SANT domain which is likely to participate in the regulation of a plant-specific developmental program.