Affiliation:
1. School of Food and Health, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing 100048, China
2. College of Food Science and Nutritional Engineering, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100083, China
Abstract
Tomato fruits are rich in flavonoids. This study explores the effect of transcription factor SlNOR-like1 on the accumulation of flavonoids in tomato fruits at different ripening stages. We used ultra-pressure liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) to analyze wild-type (WT) and NOR-like1 CRISPR/Cas9-edited (NOR-like1) tomato fruits. A total of 50 flavonoid metabolites were accurately identified and determined in tomatoes. The flavonoid metabolic differences were observed among the different tomato sample groups using PCA and OPLS-DA analysis. There were 16 differential flavonoids (13 upregulated and 3 downregulated) identified between WT-GR (WT tomato at the green-ripening stage) and NOR-like1-GR (NOR-like1 tomato at the green-ripening stage), 9 differential flavonoids (six upregulated and three downregulated) identified between WT-BR3 (WT tomato at the color-breaking stage) and NOR-like1-BR3 (NOR-like1 tomato at the color-breaking stage), and 12 differential flavonoids (11 upregulated and 1 downregulated) identified between WT-BR9 (WT tomato at the red-ripening stage) and NOR-like1-BR9 (NOR-like1 tomato at the red-ripening stage). Rutin, nicotiflorin, naringenin chalcone, eriodictyol, and naringenin-7-glucoside were the five flavonoids with the highest content in the ripening stages (BR3 and BR9) in both WT and NOR-like1 tomato fruits. The overall flavonoid contents in WT tomato fruits changed little from GR to BR3 and decreased from BR3 to BR9; meanwhile, in the NOR-like1 tomato fruits, the total amounts of the flavonoids exhibited an increasing trend during all three ripening stages. The accumulation pattern of flavonoid metabolites in NOR-like1 tomato fruits differed from that in WT tomato fruits, especially in the later ripening process of BR9. The transcription factor SlNOR-like1 has an impact on the accumulation of flavonoids in tomato fruits. The results provide a preliminary basis for subsequent research into its regulatory mechanism and will be helpful for attaining future improvements in the nutritional quality and postharvest treatment of tomato fruits.
Funder
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Subject
Plant Science,Health Professions (miscellaneous),Health (social science),Microbiology,Food Science