Tomato gene helps roots recruit helpful fungi for nutrients
Li L, He L, Ge S, Hu C, Yu J
Mycorrhizal Networks
The mycorrhizal fungi living in your garden soil right now are trading nutrients for sugar with your tomato plants, and this discovery reveals one of the genetic handshakes that makes that trade possible.
Tomato roots team up with soil fungi in a partnership called mycorrhizal symbiosis, where the fungi deliver phosphate and other nutrients in exchange for sugars from the plant. Researchers discovered a gene, SlERF15, that acts like a switch turning on this partnership by boosting two plant hormones the fungi respond to. When scientists disabled the gene in tomato plants, the plants formed far fewer fungal partnerships, absorbed less phosphate, and grew smaller.
Key Findings
Tomato plants lacking the SlERF15 gene showed substantially reduced arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi colonization, phosphate uptake, and overall growth compared to normal plants
SlERF15 directly binds and activates the promoters of three key biosynthesis genes (SlCCD7, SlCCD8, SlNCED1) that produce strigolactone and abscisic acid hormones needed to establish the fungal symbiosis
Abscisic acid feeds back to boost SlERF15 expression and strigolactone production, forming a self-reinforcing hormonal loop that sustains the plant-fungus partnership
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists found a gene switch in tomato plants that helps them team up with beneficial soil fungi to absorb more phosphate, a key nutrient. Plants without this gene struggled to form the partnership and grew poorly.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
SlERF15 promotes arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis by regulating strigolactone and abscisic acid biosynthesis in tomato.
Arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis (AMS) is a universal mutualism in natural ecosystems, governed by a complex transcriptional network. Although ethylene response factors (ERFs) are implicated in reg...
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