The NAC transcription factor FaRIF controls fruit ripening in strawberry

作者：Carmen Martín‐Pizarro, José Gabriel Vallarino, Sonia Osorio, Victoriano Meco, María Graciela De Ortúzar Urrutia, Jérémy Pillet, Ana Casañal, Catharina Merchante, Iraida Amaya, Lothar Willmitzer, Alisdair Robert Fernie, James J. Giovannoni, Miguel A. Botella, Victoriano Valpuesta, David Posé · 发表于：The Plant Cell · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.1093/plcell/koab070 · 被引用次数：223 · 研究领域：Plant Gene Expression Analysis、Postharvest Quality and Shelf Life Management、Plant Molecular Biology Research

In contrast to climacteric fruits such as tomato, the knowledge on key regulatory genes controlling the ripening of strawberry, a nonclimacteric fruit, is still limited. NAC transcription factors (TFs) mediate different developmental processes in plants. Here, we identified and characterized Ripening Inducing Factor (FaRIF), a NAC TF that is highly expressed and induced in strawberry receptacles during ripening. Functional analyses based on stable transgenic lines aimed at silencing FaRIF by RNA interference, either from a constitutive promoter or the ripe receptacle-specific EXP2 promoter, as well as overexpression lines showed that FaRIF controls critical ripening-related processes such as fruit softening and pigment and sugar accumulation. Physiological, metabolome, and transcriptome analyses of receptacles of FaRIF-silenced and overexpression lines point to FaRIF as a key regulator of strawberry fruit ripening from early developmental stages, controlling abscisic acid biosynthesis and signaling, cell-wall degradation, and modification, the phenylpropanoid pathway, volatiles production, and the balance of the aerobic/anaerobic metabolism. FaRIF is therefore a target to be modified/edited to control the quality of strawberry fruits.