Suppressing expression of a soluble acid invertase (BoINV2) in broccoli (Brassica oleracea) delays postharvest floret senescence and downregulates cysteine protease (BoCP5) transcription
2007
Eason, Jocelyn R. | Ryan, Dacey J. | Watson, Lyn M. | Pinkney, Tatyana | Hedderley, Duncan | Christey, M. C., (Mary C) | Braun, Robert H. | Coupe, Simon A.
We report on the production and selection of transgenic Brassica oleracea var. Italica lines with a downregulated soluble acid invertase (BoINV2). Explants of broccoli (cv. Triathlon) were transformed with an antisense construct of BoINV2 under the control of an Asparagus officinalis-derived harvest-induced promoter using Agrobacterium tumefaciens-mediated transformation. BoINV2 is upregulated in wild-type broccoli floret tissue after harvest. Transgenic broccoli lines showed reduced BoINV2 mRNA accumulation immediately after harvest compared with wild-type. Downregulation of BoINV2 had no significant impact on the expression of a second broccoli acid invertase gene (BoINV1), but plants with downregulated BoINV2 also had lower expression of a senescence-associated cysteine protease (BoCP5) compared with wild-type. The total soluble sugar levels in floret tissue of antisense BoINV2 lines were greater than wild-type tissue after harvest (up to 1.5 times higher). Soluble protein content of wild-type tissue decreased from 48 h after harvest with an increase in protease activity. In comparison, two antisense BoINV2 lines retained at-harvest levels of soluble protein until 72 and 96 h after harvest and had lower postharvest endoprotease activity compared with wild-type. Antisense BoINV2 lines also had a slower rate of floret sepal chlorosis after harvest compared with wild-type.
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