Pane, Maria (2025) Biotechnological approaches targeting tomato GST genes for improved crop sustainability and enhanced fruit antioxidant content. [Tesi di dottorato]

	Documento PDF Tesi.pdf Visibile a [TBR] Amministratori dell'archivio Download (8MB) | Richiedi una copia
	Documento PDF Tesi_Pane_finale_secretata.pdf Visibile a [TBR] Amministratori dell'archivio Download (1MB) | Richiedi una copia

Abstract

Climate change represents one of the major challenges in addressing the needs of an increasing world population. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is not only a globally cultivated food crop but also an important model species for studies on fruit ripening, development and quality. The main outcomes of this PhD project include the characterization of different tomato glutathione S- transferase (GST) genes using multiple approaches to investigate the role and impact of this gene family on fruit quality. We started from the functional characterization of a tomato GST (Solyc07g056420) in tobacco plants. T2 plants were subjected to drought and salt stress. Our results showed that GST genes act as a regulatory hub, influencing the expression of genes within the Foyer–Halliwell–Asada pathway, thereby enhancing the plant’s adaptive plasticity and enabling tailored responses to specific stress conditions. This regulation ultimately modifies the redox potential, leading to the accumulation of specific antioxidants and strengthening the overall antioxidant capacity. In addition, Microtom mutants carrying an ERF transcription factor knock-out has been characterized under drought conditions to investigate its involvement in drought response, its role in transcriptional regulation and fruit development and maturation. This study highlights the relationship between GST and ERF genes and their connection to fruit antioxidant content. A non-redundant reference S. lycopersicum core collection was selected from a global collection using genome-wide SNP data. Upon the administration of the differential watering treatments (FWR and HWR), different tissues (leaves, stems, and mature green fruits) were sampled for metabolic and transcriptomic profiling by RNAseq analysis. Numerous differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified, indicating significant changes in gene expression that respond to drought stress. Our study has identified key genes that could better clarify the source-to-sink mechanism in tomato plants, particularly under drought stress. Finally, specific GST loci in tomato have been knock-out to generate several mutant lines that will be used to further pursue the development of stress-tolerant tomato genotypes with improved fruit quality, supporting strategies aimed at enhancing both resistance and productivity under adverse environmental conditions.

Downloads

Actions (login required)

Modifica documento