A MADS-Box Gene Necessary for Fruit Ripening at the tomato Ripening-inhibitor (Rin) Locus

摘要

Tomato plants harboring the ripening-inhibitor (rin) mutation yield fruits that full to ripen. Additionally. Rin plants display enlarged sepals and loss of inflorescence determinacy. Positional cloning of the rin locus revealed tow tandem MADS-box genes (LeMADS-RIN and LeMADS-MC), whose expression patterns suggested roles in fruit ripening and sepal development, respectively. The rin mutation alters expression of both genes. Gene repression and mutant complementation demon- strate that leMADS-RIN regulates ripening, whereas leMADS-MC affects sepal development and inflorescence determinacy. LeMADS-RIN demonstrates an agriculturally important function of plant MADS-box genes and provides mo- lecular insight into nonhormonal (developmental) regulation of ripening.