Purple as a tomato: towards high anthocyanin tomatoes

Abstract

Anthocyanins are naturally occurring pigments ubiquitously present in plants and, as such, part of the human diet. Owing to their biological activity, anthocyanins have beneficial health effects but, unfortunately, are not present in some important crop plants, such as tomatoes. Recently, a 'purple' tomato, highly enriched with anthocyanins, was produced by the ectopic expression of two selected transcription factors from the ornamental flower snapdragon. In addition to being enriched with anthocyanin, these fruits also prolonged the life of cancer-susceptible mice, suggesting that they have additional health-promoting effects.

Biochemical and Molecular Analysis of Pink Tomatoes: Deregulated Expression of the Gene Encoding Transcription Factor SlMYB12 Leads to Pink Tomato Fruit Color

“…However, several closely related wild species do contain anthocyanins in their fruit, and this trait has recently been introgressed into the cultivated tomato through interspecific crosses with Solanum chilense and Solanum lycopersicoides. The introgressed genes, Anthocyanin fruit (Jones et al, 2003;Mes et al, 2008) and Aubergine (Mes et al, 2008), respectively, led to stimulation of anthocyanin pigmentation in tomato fruit peel (Gonzali et al, 2009).Expression analysis of genes encoding flavonoid biosynthetic enzymes in red-fruited tomatoes revealed that chalcone synthase (CHS), flavanone-3-hydrolase (F3H), and flavonol synthase (FLS) transcript levels increase during ripening, peak at the turning stage, and then decrease slightly at the red stage. In contrast, the transcript levels of chalcone isomerase (CHI) remain low and even decrease upon ripening .…”

“…However, several closely related wild species do contain anthocyanins in their fruit, and this trait has recently been introgressed into the cultivated tomato through interspecific crosses with Solanum chilense and Solanum lycopersicoides. The introgressed genes, Anthocyanin fruit (Jones et al, 2003;Mes et al, 2008) and Aubergine (Mes et al, 2008), respectively, led to stimulation of anthocyanin pigmentation in tomato fruit peel (Gonzali et al, 2009).…”

Frame-shift mutation causes the function loss of TaMYB-A1 regulating anthocyanin biosynthesis in Triticum aestivum

“…The structural genes are regulated mainly by the MYB-bHLH-WD40 (MBW) complex (Xie et al 2011). Usually, the overexpression of the MYB and bHLH genes can induce the expression of the structural genes and anthocyanin biosynthesis because of the background expression of WD40 is enough for the formation of the MBW complex in plant (Gonzali et al 2009;Zhang et al 2013). The inactivation of any gene can block the whole metabolic pathway, causing a pale plant tissue phenotype.…”

Obtenção e uso de linhagens quase isogênicas de tomateiro (Solanum lycopersicum L. cv Micro-Tom) afetando a composição de carotenoides: uma ferramenta para o estudo da nutracêutica

“…Atualmente esses tomates passam pelo processo de aprovação nos EUA, fazem parte de uma pesquisa com cardíacos no Reino Unido e espera-se que tenham uma linha de molhos (HEFFERON, 2015). O tomateiro é capaz de produzir antocianinas nos seus tecidos vegetativos, o que não ocorre naturalmente nos frutos, que acumulam certos tipos de flavonoides e flavonóis, intermediários na síntese de antocianinas (GONZALI et al, 2009). Espécies selvagens próximas ao tomateiro cultivado apresentam acúmulo de antocianinas nos frutos, especificamente na casca e de modo dependente de uma resposta a estresse luminoso.…”