Tocopherol metabolism engineering and its effects on tomato leaves and fruits

• Grant number: 17/14953-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: September 01, 2017
• End date: January 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Botany
• Principal Investigator: Maria Magdalena Rossi
• Grantee: Bruno Silvestre Lira
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 16/01128-9 - Light and hormonal regulation of nutritional quality in Solanum lycopersicum, AP.TEM

Abstract

Due to the high consumption and biochemical composition, tomato fruit is an important source of compounds with antioxidant activity such as carotenoids, ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and tocopherols (vitamin E, VTE). Our research group is pioneer in the study of tocopherol metabolism in tomato (Almeida et al. 2011). Besides its nutritional value, tocopherol are essential parts of the photosynthetic machinery and are synthetized in the plastids (Almeida et al. 2016).Some steps of the biosynthesis have already been characterised as rate-limiting to VTE accumulation as they control the precursor availability to the following reactions (Quadrana et al. 2013, Almeida et al. 2015). Moreover, recent evidences indicate the importance of the phytol recycled from chlorophyll degradation to tocopherol synthesis in ripe fruit of tomato (Almeida et al. 2016, vom Dorp et al 2015).Preliminary data showed that light controls the biosynthesis of VTE, not only by promoting the plastidial biogenesis and differentiation (i.e. more chloroplasts, more tocopherol), but also by increasing the availability of precursors along ripening.In this context, this project aims to obtain tomato genotypes with increased tocopherol content in ripe fruits without negatively affecting the levels of other nutritionally important compounds (i.e. carotenoids) by over-expressing genes that are transcriptionally regulated by light and rate-limiting to VTE biosynthesis.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

LIRA, BRUNO SILVESTRE; OLIVEIRA, MARIA JOSE; SHIOSE, LUMI; AY WU, RAQUEL TSU; ROSADO, DANIELE; DUARTE LUPI, ALESSANDRA CAVALCANTI; FRESCHI, LUCIANO; ROSSI, MAGDALENA. Light and ripening-regulated BBX protein-encoding genes in Solanum lycopersicum. SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, v. 10, n. 1, NOV 6 2020. (17/14953-0, 15/14658-3, 16/01128-9)

MOREIRA, JULIENE D. R.; ROSA, BRUNO L.; LIRA, BRUNO S.; LIMA, JONI E.; CORREIA, LUDMILA N. F.; OTONI, WAGNER C.; FIGUEIRA, ANTONIO; FRESCHI, LUCIANO; SAKAMOTO, TETSU; PERES, LAZARO E. P.; et al. Auxin-driven ecophysiological diversification of leaves in domesticated tomato. Plant Physiology, v. N/A, p. 14-pg., 2022-05-27. (16/01128-9, 17/14953-0)