Zhu Benzhong, Yang Yongfang, Li Ran, Fu Daqi, Wen Liwei, Luo Yunbo, Zhu Hongliang
Department of Food Biotechnology, College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China.
Department of Food Biotechnology, College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
J Exp Bot. 2015 Aug;66(15):4483-95. doi: 10.1093/jxb/erv203. Epub 2015 May 6.
Recently, long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been shown to play critical regulatory roles in model plants, such as Arabidopsis, rice, and maize. However, the presence of lncRNAs and how they function in fleshy fruit ripening are still largely unknown because fleshy fruit ripening is not present in the above model plants. Tomato is the model system for fruit ripening studies due to its dramatic ripening process. To investigate further the role of lncRNAs in fruit ripening, it is necessary and urgent to discover and identify novel lncRNAs and understand the function of lncRNAs in tomato fruit ripening. Here it is reported that 3679 lncRNAs were discovered from wild-type tomato and ripening mutant fruit. The lncRNAs are transcribed from all tomato chromosomes, 85.1% of which came from intergenic regions. Tomato lncRNAs are shorter and have fewer exons than protein-coding genes, a situation reminiscent of lncRNAs from other model plants. It was also observed that 490 lncRNAs were significantly up-regulated in ripening mutant fruits, and 187 lncRNAs were down-regulated, indicating that lncRNAs could be involved in the regulation of fruit ripening. In line with this, silencing of two novel tomato intergenic lncRNAs, lncRNA1459 and lncRNA1840, resulted in an obvious delay of ripening of wild-type fruit. Overall, the results indicated that lncRNAs might be essential regulators of tomato fruit ripening, which sheds new light on the regulation of fruit ripening.
最近研究表明，长链非编码RNA（lncRNAs）在拟南芥、水稻和玉米等模式植物中发挥着关键的调控作用。然而，lncRNAs在肉质果实成熟过程中的存在情况及其功能仍很大程度上未知，因为上述模式植物中不存在肉质果实成熟过程。番茄因其显著的成熟过程，是果实成熟研究的模式系统。为了进一步研究lncRNAs在果实成熟中的作用，发现和鉴定新的lncRNAs并了解lncRNAs在番茄果实成熟中的功能是必要且紧迫的。本文报道从野生型番茄和成熟突变体果实中发现了3679个lncRNAs。这些lncRNAs转录自番茄的所有染色体，其中85.1%来自基因间区域。番茄lncRNAs比蛋白质编码基因更短，外显子更少，这种情况与其他模式植物的lncRNAs类似。还观察到490个lncRNAs在成熟突变体果实中显著上调，187个lncRNAs下调，表明lncRNAs可能参与果实成熟的调控。与此一致的是，沉默两个新的番茄基因间lncRNAs，即lncRNA1459和lncRNA1840，导致野生型果实成熟明显延迟。总体而言，结果表明lncRNAs可能是番茄果实成熟的重要调节因子，这为果实成熟调控提供了新的线索。
