A common genetic mechanism underlies morphological diversity in fruits and other plant organs

• Published in: Nature communications 2018-11, Vol.9 (1), p.4734-12, Article 4734
• Main Authors: Wu, Shan, Zhang, Biyao, Keyhaninejad, Neda, Rodríguez, Gustavo R., Kim, Hyun Jung, Chakrabarti, Manohar, Illa-Berenguer, Eudald, Taitano, Nathan K., Gonzalo, M. J, Díaz, Aurora, Pan, Yupeng, Leisner, Courtney P., Halterman, Dennis, Buell, C. Robin, Weng, Yiqun, Jansky, Shelley H., van Eck, Herman, Willemsen, Johan, Monforte, Antonio J., Meulia, Tea, van der Knaap, Esther
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 14; 14/19; 45; 45/111; 631/208/480; 631/449/2653; 631/61/447/8; 82/111; Amino Acid Sequence; Biodiversity; Cell Division; Cloning; Crop improvement; Crops; EPS; Flowers & plants; Fruit - anatomy & histology; Fruit - genetics; Fruits; Genetic Complementation Test; Genetic diversity; Genome editing; Genomes; Humanities and Social Sciences; Laboratorium voor Plantenveredeling; Laboratory of Plant Breeding; Models, Biological; Morphology; multidisciplinary; Organs; PBR Biodiversiteit en Genetische Variatie; PBR Biodiversity and genetic variation; Physical Chromosome Mapping; Plant Breeding; Plant diversity; Plant Proteins - chemistry; Plant Proteins - metabolism; Plant species; Plants - anatomy & histology; Plants - genetics; Protein Binding; Proteins; Saccharomyces cerevisiae - metabolism; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Tobacco; Tomatoes
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07216-8

Shapes of edible plant organs vary dramatically among and within crop plants. To explain and ultimately employ this variation towards crop improvement, we determined the genetic, molecular and cellular bases of fruit shape diversity in tomato. Through positional cloning, protein interaction studies, and genome editing, we report that OVATE Family Proteins and TONNEAU1 Recruiting Motif proteins regulate cell division patterns in ovary development to alter final fruit shape. The physical interactions between the members of these two families are necessary for dynamic relocalization of the protein complexes to different cellular compartments when expressed in tobacco leaf cells. Together with data from other domesticated crops and model plant species, the protein interaction studies provide possible mechanistic insights into the regulation of morphological variation in plants and a framework that may apply to organ growth in all plant species. Remarkable organ shape morphological diversity exists in fruits, vegetables and seeds. Here, the authors establish a link between OVATE Family Proteins and TONNEAU1 Recruiting Motif family proteins in the development pathway that governs fruit shape of tomato, melon, and cucumber as well as potato tuber shape.