A MADS-Box Gene Necessary for Fruit Ripening at the Tomato Ripening-Inhibitor (Rin) Locus

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 296; no. 5566; pp. 343 - 346
• Main Authors: Vrebalov, Julia, Ruezinsky, Diane, Padmanabhan, Veeraragavan, White, Ruth, Medrano, Diana, Drake, Rachel, Schuch, Wolfgang, Giovannoni, Jim
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Society for the Advancement of Science 12.04.2002; American Association for the Advancement of Science; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Biological and medical sciences; Botany; Calyx; Chromosome Mapping; Chromosomes, Artificial, Yeast; Classical and quantitative genetics. Population genetics. Molecular genetics; Climacteric; Cloning, Molecular; Coding; Complementary DNA; DNA, Antisense; DNA, Complementary; Ethylenes - biosynthesis; Ethylenes - pharmacology; Fruit - physiology; Fruits; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Gene Expression; Gene Expression Regulation, Plant; Generalities. Genetics. Plant material; Genes; Genes, Plant; Genetic Complementation Test; Genetics; Genetics and breeding of economic plants; Inflorescences; Logical Thinking; Lycopersicon esculentum; Lycopersicon esculentum - genetics; Lycopersicon esculentum - physiology; MADS Domain Proteins - genetics; MADS Domain Proteins - physiology; MADS-box gene; Molecular genetics; Molecular Sequence Data; Mutation; Petals; Phylogeny; Plant Proteins - genetics; Plant Proteins - physiology; Plant Structures - genetics; Plant Structures - physiology; Plants; Plants, Genetically Modified; Ripening; RNA; Tomatoes; Genetic transformation; CALYX; Inflorescence; Pome fruit; Transcription repressor; Climacteric; Metabolic inhibitor; Gene expression; Genetic determinism; Ripening; Vegetable crop; Dicotyledones; Angiospermae; Lycopersicon esculentum; Spermatophyta; Solanaceae; Mutation; Locus
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1068181

Tomato plants harboring the ripening-inhibitor (rin) mutation yield fruits that fail to ripen. Additionally, rin plants display enlarged sepals and loss of inflorescence determinacy. Positional cloning of the rin locus revealed two tandem MADS-box genes (LeMADS-RIN and LeMADS-MC), whose expression patterns suggested roles in fruit ripening and sepal development, respectively. The rin mutation alters expression of both genes. Gene repression and mutant complementation demonstrate that LeMADS-RIN regulates ripening, whereas LeMADS-MC affects sepal development and inflorescence determinacy. LeMADS-RIN demonstrates an agriculturally important function of plant MADS-box genes and provides molecular insight into nonhormonal (developmental) regulation of ripening.