Epistasis in tomato color mutations involves regulation of phytoene synthase 1 expression by cis-carotenoids.

ABSTRACT: Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) fruit accumulate the red carotenoid pigment lycopene. The recessive mutation yellow-flesh (locus r) in tomato eliminates fruit carotenoids by disrupting the activity of the fruit-specific phytoene synthase (PSY1), the first committed step in the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway. Fruits of the recessive mutation tangerine (t) appear orange due to accumulation of 7,9,7',9'-tetra-cis-lycopene (prolycopene) as a result of a mutation in the carotenoid cis-trans isomerase. It was established 60 y ago that tangerine is epistatic to yellow-flesh. This uncharacteristic epistasis interaction defies a paradigm in biochemical genetics arguing that mutations that disrupt enzymes acting early in a biosynthetic pathway are epistatic to other mutations that block downstream st

SUBMITTER: Kachanovsky DE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3503155 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature