Gene edit makes tomatoes stay fresh far longer
de la Mora-Franco D, Bernal-Gallardo JJ, López-Gómez P, Martínez-Estrada E, Hernández-Cano GN
Crispr
The tomato going soft in your fruit bowl within days is a cell-wall enzyme at work, and researchers just found a way to dial that process down so the fruit holds its shape and shelf life much longer.
Tomato flowers and fruit build and rebuild their cell walls constantly as they grow, using enzymes called cellulases that break down and reshape those walls. Researchers pinpointed one such enzyme, SlGH9-16, and found that removing it changes how the flower's female parts form and how the ripe fruit's flesh holds together, making the fruit firmer and slower to spoil after picking. This gives breeders a concrete genetic target for growing tomatoes with better shape and longer post-harvest life.
Key Findings
SlGH9-16 and its plant relatives (AtGH9B2, AtGH9B13) show conserved, dynamic expression patterns in female flower organs across species
CRISPR knockout and overexpression lines show SlGH9-16 is required for normal cellular patterning and shape of the tomato gynoecium (female flower structure)
Loss of SlGH9-16 acts in a dose-dependent way to alter fruit shape and texture, significantly extending post-harvest shelf life, linked to measurable chemical changes in the fruit's cell wall polysaccharides (via FT-IR and HPTLC)
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists identified a gene that controls how tomato flowers and fruit form their cell walls, and switching it off makes tomatoes last significantly longer after harvest without spoiling.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
The role of SlGH9-16 cellulase in gynoecium morphogenesis and fruit texture in tomato.
Flower development involves dynamic cell wall changes driven by coordinated synthesis, breakdown, and remodeling processes that support cell division, differentiation, and expansion. Endo-1,4-β-glu...
open_in_new Read full abstractAbstract copyright held by the original publisher.
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