Expression analysis of VIS1 gene in Solanumlycopersicum

Abstract

Tomato (Solanumlycopersicum) fruit is a model plant to study the molecular basis of fleshy fruit development and ripening.S. lycopersicumfruit ripening is due to the change in tomato fruit juice viscosity and depolymerization process catalyze by conformationally changed enzymes.Viscosity1 gene plays a key role in tomato fruit viscosity and pectin depolymerization by performing chaperone activity, the process in which the conformation of the enzyme fully changes and becomes resistant to heat shock to avoid degradation. VIS1protein belongs to a small heat shock protein class andworks in association with other proteins in the tomato fruit. VIS1 proteinshows high similarity withonline available sHSp20 protein which is clearly depicted through different bioinformatics tools. VIS1 gene has been isolated from S.lycopersicum and find out its expression at six stages of tomato fruit.VIS1gene at IMG and IM fruit stages show low expression suggesting that at low temperature its expression is low while at Br and Tr fruit stages its expression becomes moderate due to changes in light intensity. At the final fruit stages, pink and red the VIS1 gene highly expressed. These results clearly showing the transcript accumulation in different fruit stages Therefore; I propose that Hsp including VIS1 Protein play significant role in fruit ripening process by protecting fruit from environmental and ripening associated stresses.