Abstract
Tomatoes are a principal dietary source of carotenoids and flavonoids, both of which are highly beneficial for human health1,2. Overexpression of genes encoding biosynthetic enzymes or transcription factors have resulted in tomatoes with improved carotenoid or flavonoid content, but never with both3,4,5,6,7. We attempted to increase tomato fruit nutritional value by suppressing an endogenous photomorphogenesis regulatory gene, DET1, using fruit-specific promoters combined with RNA interference (RNAi) technology. Molecular analysis indicated that DET1 transcripts were indeed specifically degraded in transgenic fruits. Both carotenoid and flavonoid contents were increased significantly, whereas other parameters of fruit quality were largely unchanged. These results demonstrate that manipulation of a plant regulatory gene can simultaneously influence the production of several phytonutrients generated from independent biosynthetic pathways, and provide a novel example of the use of organ-specific gene silencing to improve the nutritional value of plant-derived products.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Seminis Vegetable Seeds Inc., and by funding from the European Union (contract QLK5-CT-2000-00357), the Italian Ministry for Research and Education (FIRB contract RBNE01CFKB) to C.B. P.D.F. and P.M.B. acknowledge financial support from the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (C19322).
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Davuluri, G., van Tuinen, A., Fraser, P. et al. Fruit-specific RNAi-mediated suppression of DET1 enhances carotenoid and flavonoid content in tomatoes. Nat Biotechnol 23, 890â895 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1108
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1108
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