Dipartimento di Biologia Vegetale, Università degli Studi di Torino and IPP-CNR, Viale Mattioli 25, 10125 Torino, Italy.
BMC Plant Biol. 2012 Mar 27;12:44. doi: 10.1186/1471-2229-12-44.
Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis is the most widespread association between plant roots and fungi in natural and agricultural ecosystems. This work investigated the influence of mycorrhization on the economically relevant part of the tomato plant, by analyzing its impact on the physiology of the fruit. To this aim, a combination of phenological observations, transcriptomics (Microarrays and qRT-PCR) and biochemical analyses was used to unravel the changes that occur on fruits from Micro-Tom tomato plants colonized by the AM fungus Glomus mosseae.
Mycorrhization accelerated the flowering and fruit development and increased the fruit yield. Eleven transcripts were differentially regulated in the fruit upon mycorrhization, and the mycorrhiza-responsive genes resulted to be involved in nitrogen and carbohydrate metabolism as well as in regulation and signal transduction. Mycorrhization has increased the amino acid abundance in the fruit from mycorrhizal plants, with glutamine and asparagine being the most responsive amino acids.
The obtained results offer novel data on the systemic changes that are induced by the establishment of AM symbiosis in the plant, and confirm the work hypothesis that AM fungi may extend their influence from the root to the fruit.
丛枝菌根（AM）共生是植物根系与真菌在自然和农业生态系统中最广泛的共生关系。本研究通过分析其对果实生理学的影响，研究了菌根化对番茄植物经济相关部分的影响。为此，采用了表型观察、转录组学（微阵列和 qRT-PCR）和生化分析相结合的方法，揭示了被 AM 真菌 Glomus mosseae 定殖的番茄 Micro-Tom 植株果实中发生的变化。
菌根化加速了开花和果实发育，并增加了果实产量。11 个转录本在果实的菌根化过程中差异调控，菌根响应基因参与氮和碳水化合物代谢以及调控和信号转导。菌根化增加了果实中氨基酸的丰度，其中谷氨酸和天冬酰胺的响应最为显著。
获得的结果提供了关于 AM 共生在植物中诱导的系统变化的新数据，并证实了 AM 真菌可能将其影响从根部扩展到果实的工作假设。
