Releasing a sugar brake generates sweeter tomato without yield penalty

Jinzhe Zhang, Hongjun Lyu, Jie Chen, Xue Cao, Ran Du, Liang Ma, Nan Wang, Zhiguo Zhu, Jianglei Rao, Jie Wang, Kui Zhong, Yaqing Lyu, Yanling Wang, Tao Lin, Yao Zhou, Yongfeng Zhou, Guangtao Zhu, Zhangjun Fei, Harry Klee and Sanwen Huang ()
Additional contact information
Jinzhe Zhang: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Hongjun Lyu: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Jie Chen: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Xue Cao: China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences
Ran Du: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Liang Ma: China Agricultural University
Nan Wang: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Zhiguo Zhu: Southwest United Graduate School
Jianglei Rao: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Jie Wang: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Kui Zhong: China National Institute of Standardization
Yaqing Lyu: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Yanling Wang: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Tao Lin: China Agricultural University
Yao Zhou: China University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yongfeng Zhou: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Guangtao Zhu: Southwest United Graduate School
Zhangjun Fei: Cornell University
Harry Klee: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Sanwen Huang: Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences

Nature, 2024, vol. 635, issue 8039, 647-656

Abstract: Abstract In tomato, sugar content is highly correlated with consumer preferences, with most consumers preferring sweeter fruit1–4. However, the sugar content of commercial varieties is generally low, as it is inversely correlated with fruit size, and growers prioritize yield over flavour quality5–7. Here we identified two genes, tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) calcium-dependent protein kinase 27 (SlCDPK27; also known as SlCPK27) and its paralogue SlCDPK26, that control fruit sugar content. They act as sugar brakes by phosphorylating a sucrose synthase, which promotes degradation of the sucrose synthase. Gene-edited SlCDPK27 and SlCDPK26 knockouts increased glucose and fructose contents by up to 30%, enhancing perceived sweetness without fruit weight or yield penalty. Although there are fewer, lighter seeds in the mutants, they exhibit normal germination. Together, these findings provide insight into the regulatory mechanisms controlling fruit sugar accumulation in tomato and offer opportunities to increase sugar content in large-fruited cultivars without sacrificing size and yield.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08186-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:635:y:2024:i:8039:d:10.1038_s41586-024-08186-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08186-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().