SlMYB1 regulates the accumulation of lycopene, fruit shape, and resistance to Botrytis cinerea in tomato

Abstract

Fruit lycopene, shape, and resistance are essential traits in vegetables whose final product is fruit, and they are also closely related to and strictly regulated by multiple transcription factors. Lycopene, which cannot be synthesized by the human body and can only be ingested from the outside, was important in maintaining human health. During fruit ripening and post-harvest, tomato plants face a variety of biotic or abiotic stresses, which might inflict great damage to fruit quality due to its flat shape and pointed tip during storage and transportation. Therefore, there is an urgent need for key molecular switches to simultaneously improve fruit lycopene and resistance to biotic stress during ripening. Here, we identified the MYB transcription factor SlMYB1 in tomato plants which could bind to the promoters of lycopene synthesis-related genes, SlLCY1, SlPSY2, and the pathogen-related gene SlPR5 directly, to regulate the fruit lycopene and resistance to Botrytis cinerea in tomato. In addition to regulating lycopene synthesis, SlMYB1 also regulates the content of soluble sugar, soluble protein and flavonoid in tomato. What’s more, SlMYB1 could regulate the tomato fruit shape, making it smoother or flatter to prevent skin damage caused by vibration on fruits. RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) further showed that SlMYB1 fruit-specific expression lines had multiple differentially expressed genes compared with those from wild-type plants, suggesting that SlMYB1 might have multiple roles in fruit nutritional quality control and resistance to stresses, which is a rare occurrence in previous studies. In summary, our results revealed that SlMYB1 was an essential multi-functional transcription factor that could regulate the lycopene and resistance to Botrytis cinerea, and change the shape of fruit in tomato plants.

Acknowledgements

The work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation (32072500, 31872925, 32272557), Shandong Province Key Research and Development Plan (2022TZXD0025, 2021TZXD007-04-4), Taishan Scholar Program of Shandong Province, Major Basic Research Project of Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2022ZD23) and Shandong Modern Agricultural Industry Technology System (SDAIT-04-08).

Author contributions

Ziyi Yin, Haipeng Zhao, and Jiazong Liu: conceptualization, methodology, software; Xiaomeng Chu, Haoqi Liu, and Xiangyu Ding: data curation, writing – original draft preparation. Xiangyu Ding, Chongchong Lu, Haipeng Zhao, and Xinyu Wang: visualization, investigation; Yang Li and Xinhua Ding: supervision; Xiangyu Zhao and Xiangyu Ding: software, validation; Ziyi Yin, Jiazong Liu, and Yang Li: writing – reviewing and editing. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Data availability

All data generated and analysed during this study are included in this article (and supplementary file).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

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