Quatitative trait loci analysis(QTL) of fruit characteristics in tomato

Thesis(Master)--Izmir Institute of Technology, Biotechnology, Izmir, 2008Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 75-79)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishxi, 93 leavesTomato has a crucial part in the human diet. Therefore, many plant breeders have tried to improve horticulturally important traits such as yield, fruit size, shape and color. With increased attention on human health, plant breeders also consider the improvement of health-related traits of fruits and vegetables such as antioxidant characters. However, because most plant traits are controlled by more than one gene, improvement of crops that possess the desired traits is very difficult.Development of molecular marker techniques makes these processes feasible for plant breeders. In this study both health-related and horticulturally important traits were characterized for identificaton of their locations in the tomato genome using 152 Lycopersicon hirsutum BC2F2 mapping individuals. For this aim, all plants were phenotypically and genotypically characterized. It was expected that some alleles from the wild species L.hirsutum had the capacity for improvement of both antioxidant and agronomically important traits of elite lines.A total of 75 QTLs were identified for all traits. Of the 75 QTLs, 28 were identified for five antioxidant traits including total water soluble antioxidant capacity, vitamin C, phenolic, flavonoids and lycopene content and 47 QTLs were identified for 8 agronomic traits including external and internal fruit color, fruit weight, firmness, fruit shape, stem scar size, locule number and wall thickness. Seventeen of these QTLs were also identified by previous studies. Markers linked with these QTLs can be used in Marker Assisted Selection (MAS) for improvement of elite tomato lines

Water-soluble antioxidant potential of Turkish pepper cultivars

In this work, 29 pepper cultivars that represent the diversity of types and varieties grown in Turkey were analyzed for water-soluble antioxidant capacity and phenolic and vitamin C contents. In addition, 14 non-Turkish cultivars were tested for comparison. Significant diversity was observed in the different cultivars with the most variation (7.4-fold) seen for total antioxidant capacity, which ranged from 2.57 to 18.96 mmol Trolox/kg. Vitamin C content for the peppers ranged from 522 to 1631 mg·kg-1, a 3.1-fold difference, whereas total phenolic content for the pepper cultivars ranged from 607 to 2724 mg·kg-1, a 4.5-fold difference. When cultivars were grouped by morphology/ use, it was found that some types had significantly more variation and higher antioxidant activities than other types. Thus, for water-soluble antioxidant capacity, most variation was seen in long, blunt-ended Çarliston types, whereas long, pointed Sivri peppers had the highest mean capacity. Bell-shaped Dolmalik and Sivri peppers had the most variation for phenolic content, but fancy Süs and Sivri types had the highest means for this trait. Dolmalik types showed the most variation for vitamin C content, whereas Süs and Sivri peppers had the highest means for this character. All three parameters were significantly and positively correlated with the strongest correlation between total antioxidant capacity and phenolic content (r = 0.71). The presence of significant variation for antioxidant content in Turkish germplasm indicates that this material can be used for improvement and genetic mapping of nutritional content in pepper

Salt tolerance in Solanum pennellii: antioxidant response and related QTL

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Excessive soil salinity is an important problem for agriculture, however, salt tolerance is a complex trait that is not easily bred into plants. Exposure of cultivated tomato to salt stress has been reported to result in increased antioxidant content and activity. Salt tolerance of the related wild species, <it>Solanum pennellii</it>, has also been associated with similar changes in antioxidants. In this work, <it>S. lycopersicum </it>M82, <it>S. pennellii </it>LA716 and a <it>S. pennellii </it>introgression line (IL) population were evaluated for growth and their levels of antioxidant activity (total water-soluble antioxidant activity), major antioxidant compounds (phenolic and flavonoid contents) and antioxidant enzyme activities (superoxide dismutase, catalase, ascorbate peroxidase and peroxidase) under both control and salt stress (150 mM NaCl) conditions. These data were then used to identify quantitative trait loci (QTL) responsible for controlling the antioxidant parameters under both stress and nonstress conditions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Under control conditions, cultivated tomato had higher levels of all antioxidants (except superoxide dismutase) than <it>S. pennellii</it>. However, under salt stress, the wild species showed greater induction of all antioxidants except peroxidase. The ILs showed diverse responses to salinity and proved very useful for the identification of QTL. Thus, 125 loci for antioxidant content under control and salt conditions were detected. Eleven of the total antioxidant activity and phenolic content QTL matched loci identified in an independent study using the same population, thereby reinforcing the validity of the loci. In addition, the growth responses of the ILs were evaluated to identify lines with favorable growth and antioxidant profiles.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Plants have a complex antioxidant response when placed under salt stress. Some loci control antioxidant content under all conditions while others are responsible for antioxidant content only under saline or nonsaline conditions. The localization of QTL for these traits and the identification of lines with specific antioxidant and growth responses may be useful for breeding potentially salt tolerant tomato cultivars having higher antioxidant levels under nonstress and salt stress conditions.</p

Exploration of three Solanum species for improvement of antioxidant traits in tomato

Wild tomato species have been widely used for improvement of tomato disease resistance but have not been extensively explored for health-related traits. In this work, three interspecific populations derived from backcrosses between cultivated tomato and Solanum pimpinellifolium (LA1589), S. habrochaites (LA1223), and S. peruvianum (LA2172) were analyzed for water-soluble antioxidant activity, phenolic content, vitamin C content, and basic agronomic traits including fruit weight, shape, and color. The wild species accessions significantly exceeded S. lycopersicum for all three antioxidant traits with only one exception: vitamin C content in S. habrochaites LA1223. Several populations and traits showed transgressive segregation indicating that the backcross populations contained individuals with allele combinations that allowed antioxidant activity/content to exceed that of both parents. The S. habrochaites LA1223 population provided the best starting material for improvement of water-soluble antioxidant activity and phenolics content with 20% and 15% of the population, respectively, significantly exceeding the parental values for these traits. Moreover, the S. habrochaites population contained individuals that had nearly 2-fold more water-soluble antioxidant activity and phenolic content than cultivated tomato. The S. peruvianum LA2172 population was best for improvement of vitamin C content with 3-fold variation for the trait and individuals, which had twice as much vitamin C as cultivated tomato.Izmir Institute of Technology (BAP) (2002-IYTE-29/2004-IYTE-38

The Genomes of the Fungal Plant Pathogens Cladosporium fulvum and Dothistroma septosporum Reveal Adaptation to Different Hosts and Lifestyles But Also Signatures of Common Ancestry.

We sequenced and compared the genomes of the Dothideomycete fungal plant pathogensCladosporium fulvum (Cfu) (syn. Passalora fulva) and Dothistroma septosporum (Dse) that are closely related phylogenetically, but have different lifestyles and hosts. Although both fungi grow extracellularly in close contact with host mesophyll cells, Cfu is a biotroph infecting tomato, while Dse is a hemibiotroph infecting pine. The genomes of these fungi have a similar set of genes (70% of gene content in both genomes are homologs), but differ significantly in size (Cfu \u3e61.1-Mb; Dse 31.2-Mb), which is mainly due to the difference in repeat content (47.2% in Cfu versus 3.2% in Dse). Recent adaptation to different lifestyles and hosts is suggested by diverged sets of genes. Cfu contains an α-tomatinase gene that we predict might be required for detoxification of tomatine, while this gene is absent in Dse. Many genes encoding secreted proteins are unique to each species and the repeat-rich areas in Cfu are enriched for these species-specific genes. In contrast, conserved genes suggest common host ancestry. Homologs of Cfu effector genes, including Ecp2 and Avr4, are present in Dse and induce a Cf-Ecp2- and Cf-4-mediated hypersensitive response, respectively. Strikingly, genes involved in production of the toxin dothistromin, a likely virulence factor for Dse, are conserved in Cfu, but their expression differs markedly with essentially no expression by Cfu in planta. Likewise, Cfu has a carbohydrate-degrading enzyme catalog that is more similar to that of necrotrophs or hemibiotrophs and a larger pectinolytic gene arsenal than Dse, but many of these genes are not expressed in planta or are pseudogenized. Overall, comparison of their genomes suggests that these closely related plant pathogens had a common ancestral host but since adapted to different hosts and lifestyles by a combination of differentiated gene content, pseudogenization, and gene regulation

Quatitative trait loci analysis(QTL) of fruit characteristics in tomato

Thesis(Master)--Izmir Institute of Technology, Biotechnology, Izmir, 2008Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 75-79)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishxi, 93 leavesTomato has a crucial part in the human diet. Therefore, many plant breeders have tried to improve horticulturally important traits such as yield, fruit size, shape and color. With increased attention on human health, plant breeders also consider the improvement of health-related traits of fruits and vegetables such as antioxidant characters. However, because most plant traits are controlled by more than one gene, improvement of crops that possess the desired traits is very difficult.Development of molecular marker techniques makes these processes feasible for plant breeders. In this study both health-related and horticulturally important traits were characterized for identificaton of their locations in the tomato genome using 152 Lycopersicon hirsutum BC2F2 mapping individuals. For this aim, all plants were phenotypically and genotypically characterized. It was expected that some alleles from the wild species L.hirsutum had the capacity for improvement of both antioxidant and agronomically important traits of elite lines.A total of 75 QTLs were identified for all traits. Of the 75 QTLs, 28 were identified for five antioxidant traits including total water soluble antioxidant capacity, vitamin C, phenolic, flavonoids and lycopene content and 47 QTLs were identified for 8 agronomic traits including external and internal fruit color, fruit weight, firmness, fruit shape, stem scar size, locule number and wall thickness. Seventeen of these QTLs were also identified by previous studies. Markers linked with these QTLs can be used in Marker Assisted Selection (MAS) for improvement of elite tomato lines

Pseudozyma saprotrophic yeasts have retained a large effector arsenal, including functional Pep1 orthologs

The basidiomycete smut fungi are predominantly plant parasitic, causing severe losses in some crops. Most species feature a saprotrophic haploid yeast stage, and several smut fungi are only known from this stage, with some isolated from habitats without suitable hosts, e.g. from Antarctica. Thus, these species are generally believed to be apathogenic, but recent findings that some of these might have a plant pathogenic sexual counterpart, casts doubts on the validity of this hypothesis. Here, four Pseudozyma genomes were re-annotated and compared to published smut pathogens and the well-characterised effector gene Pep1 from these species was checked for its ability to complement a Pep1 deletion strain of Ustilago maydis. It was found that 113 high-confidence putative effector proteins were conserved among smut and Pseudozyma genomes. Among these were several validated effector proteins, including Pep1. By genetic complementation we show that Pep1 homologs from the supposedly apathogenic yeasts restore virulence in Pep1-deficient mutants Ustilago maydis. Thus, it is concluded that Pseudozyma species have retained a suite of effectors. This hints at the possibility that Pseudozyma species have kept an unknown plant pathogenic stage for sexual recombination or that these effectors have positive effects when colonising plant surfaces

Tectonic implications of transtensional supradetachment basin development in an extension-parallel transfer zone: the Kocacay Basin, western Anatolia, Turkey

The Kocacay Basin (KCB) is a key area in western Anatolia - a well-known extended terrane where regional segmentation has received limited attention - for investigating strike-slip faults kinematically linked to detachment faults. In this paper, we present results of an integrated sedimentologic, stratigraphic, and structural study of Miocene alluvial fan/fan-delta/lacustrine deposits that accumulated in the KCB, a NE-trending basin with connections to the Menderes Metamorphic Core Complex (MCC). We mapped and evaluated most of the key faults in the KCB, many for the first time, and recognised different deformation events in the study area near the E margin of the MCC. We also present field evidence for kinematic connections between low-angle normal and strike-slip faults which were developed in an intermittently active basement-involved transfer zone in western Anatolia. We find that the KCB contains a detailed record of Miocene transtensional sedimentation and volcanism that accompanied exhumation of the MCC. Structural data reveal that the basin was initially formed by transtension (D1 phase) and subsequently uplifted and deformed, probably as a result of early Pliocene wrench-to extension-dominated deformation (D2 phase) overprinted by Plio-Quaternary extensional tectonics (D3 phase). These results are consistent with progressive deformation wherein the axis of maximum extension remained in the horizontal plane but the intermediate and maximum shortening axes switched position in the vertical plane. Combining our results with published studies, we propose a new working hypothesis that the KCB was a transtensional supradetachment basin during the Miocene. The hypothesis could provide new insights into intermittently active extension-parallel zone of weakness in western Anatolia. These results also suggest that the termination of low-angle normal fault systems within an extension parallel transfer zone may have resulted in a transtensional depressions which are different from classical supradetachment basins with respect to the sedimentation and deformational pattern of the basin infills