Tomato yield heterosis is triggered by a dosage sensitivity of the florigen pathway that fine-tunes shoot architecture.

ABSTRACT: The superiority of hybrids has long been exploited in agriculture, and although many models explaining "heterosis" have been put forth, direct empirical support is limited. Particularly elusive have been cases of heterozygosity for single gene mutations causing heterosis under a genetic model known as overdominance. In tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), plants carrying mutations in SINGLE FLOWER TRUSS (SFT) encoding the flowering hormone florigen are severely delayed in flowering, become extremely large, and produce few flowers and fruits, but when heterozygous, yields are dramatically increased. Curiously, this overdominance is evident only in the background of "determinate" plants, in which the continuous production of side shoots and inflorescences gradually halts due to a defect in the flo

SUBMITTER: Jiang K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3873276 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature