Abstract
Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is a well-studied model of fleshy fruit development and ripening. Tomato fruit development is well understood from a hormonal-regulatory perspective, and developmental changes in pigment and cell wall metabolism are also well characterized. However, more general aspects of metabolic change during fruit development have not been studied despite the importance of metabolism in the context of final composition of the ripe fruit. In this study, we quantified the abundance of a broad range of metabolites by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, analyzed a number of the principal metabolic fluxes, and in parallel analyzed transcriptomic changes during tomato fruit development. Metabolic profiling revealed pronounced shifts in the abundance of metabolites of both primary and secondary metabolism during development. The metabolite changes were reflected in the flux analysis that revealed a general decrease in metabolic activity during ripening. However, there were several distinct patterns of metabolite profile, and statistical analysis demonstrated that metabolites in the same (or closely related) pathways changed in abundance in a coordinated manner, indicating a tight regulation of metabolic activity. The metabolite data alone allowed investigations of likely routes through the metabolic network, and, as an example, we analyze the operational feasibility of different pathways of ascorbate synthesis. When combined with the transcriptomic data, several aspects of the regulation of metabolism during fruit ripening were revealed. First, it was apparent that transcript abundance was less strictly coordinated by functional group than metabolite abundance, suggesting that posttranslational mechanisms dominate metabolic regulation. Nevertheless, there were some correlations between specific transcripts and metabolites, and several novel associations were identified that could provide potential targets for manipulation of fruit compositional traits. Finally, there was a strong relationship between ripening-associated transcripts and specific metabolite groups, such as TCA-cycle organic acids and sugar phosphates, underlining the importance of the respective metabolic pathways during fruit development.
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Claims 9
Claim · model-written summary
Primary and secondary metabolite abundances shifted during tomato fruit development.
- Taxon
- Tomato
Solanum lycopersicume1 - Organ / stage
- fruite1
- Outcome
- abundance of metabolites of both primary and secondary metabolisme0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Metabolic profiling revealed pronounced shifts in the abundance of metabolites of both primary and secondary metabolism during development”
e1“Tomato fruit development”
Claim · model-written summary
Overall metabolic activity decreased during tomato fruit ripening.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicume1
- Organ / stage
- fruite1
- Outcome
- metabolic activitye0
- Direction
- decreasee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“flux analysis that revealed a general decrease in metabolic activity during ripening”
e1“Tomato fruit development”
Claim · model-written summary
Metabolites in the same or related pathways changed abundance in a coordinated manner.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicume1
- Organ / stage
- fruite1
- Outcome
- abundancee0
- Direction
- changede0
- Qualifier
- in a coordinated mannere0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“metabolites in the same (or closely related) pathways changed in abundance in a coordinated manner”
e1“Tomato fruit development”
Claim · model-written summary
Metabolite data alone permitted investigation of likely routes through the tomato metabolic network.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicume1
- Outcome
- investigations of likely routes through the metabolic networke0
- Comparator
- metabolite data alonee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“The metabolite data alone allowed investigations of likely routes through the metabolic network”
e1“Tomato fruit development”
Claim · model-written summary
Tomato fruit transcript abundance was less coordinated by functional group than metabolite abundance.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicume1
- Organ / stage
- fruite1
- Outcome
- transcript abundancee0
- Direction
- less strictly coordinatede0
- Comparator
- metabolite abundancee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“transcript abundance was less strictly coordinated by functional group than metabolite abundance”
e1“Tomato fruit development”
Claim · model-written summary
Specific tomato transcripts and metabolites were correlated.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicume1
- Organ / stage
- fruite1
- Outcome
- correlations between specific transcripts and metabolitese0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“there were some correlations between specific transcripts and metabolites”
e1“Tomato fruit development”
Claim · model-written summary
Novel associations between transcripts and metabolites were identified as potential fruit composition targets.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicume1
- Organ / stage
- fruite1
- Outcome
- novel associationse0
- Qualifier
- could provide potential targets for manipulation of fruit compositional traitse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“several novel associations were identified that could provide potential targets for manipulation of fruit compositional traits”
e1“Tomato fruit development”
Claim · model-written summary
Ripening associated transcripts were strongly related to TCA cycle organic acids and sugar phosphates.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicume1
- Organ / stage
- fruite1
- Outcome
- strong relationship between ripening-associated transcripts and specific metabolite groupse0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“there was a strong relationship between ripening-associated transcripts and specific metabolite groups, such as TCA-cycle organic acids and sugar phosphates”
e1“Tomato fruit development”
Claim · model-written summary
The weaker transcript coordination suggested that posttranslational mechanisms dominate tomato metabolic regulation.
- Taxon
- TomatoSolanum lycopersicume1
- Outcome
- metabolic regulatione0
- Qualifier
- posttranslational mechanismse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“suggesting that posttranslational mechanisms dominate metabolic regulation”
e1“Tomato fruit development”