Modest calcium increase in tomatoes expressing a variant of Arabidopsis cation/H+ antiporter

Mi Young Chung, Jeung Sul Han, James Giovannoni, Yang Liu, Chang Kil Kim, Ki Byung Lim, Jae Dong Chung

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

27 Scopus citations

Abstract

The over-expression of Arabidopsis CAX1 and CAX2 causes transgenic tomato plants to reveal severe Ca2+ deficiency-like symptoms such as tip-burn and/or blossom end rot, despite there being sufficient Ca2+ in each plant part. To correct the symptoms and to moderately enhance the calcium level, a worldwide vegetable tomato was genetically engineered using a modified Arabidopsis cation/H+ antiporter sCAX2A, a mutant form of Arabidopsis CAX2. Compared with the wild-type, the sCAX2A-expressing tomato plants demonstrated elevated Ca2+ levels in the fruits with almost no changes in the levels of Mn2+, Cu2+, and Fe2+. Moreover, expression of sCAX2A in tomato plants did not show any significant alterations in their morphological phenotypes. Unlike 35S::sCAX1 construct, sCAX2A antiporter gene driven by 35S promoter can be a valuable tool for enriching Ca2+ contents in the tomato fruit without additional accumulation of the undesirable cations.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)15-21
Number of pages7
JournalPlant Biotechnology Reports
Volume4
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2010

Keywords

  • Blossom-end rot
  • Ca nutrition
  • Cation/H antiporter
  • Genetic transformation
  • Solanum lycopersicum
  • Tip-burn

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Modest calcium increase in tomatoes expressing a variant of Arabidopsis cation/H+ antiporter'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this