Flower development directly affects fruit production in tomato. Despite the framework mediated by ABC genes have been established in Arabidopsis, the spatiotemporal precision of floral development in tomato has not been well examined. Here, we analyzed a novel tomato stamenless like flower (slf) mutant in which the development of stamens and carpels is disturbed, with carpelloid structure formed in the third whorl and ectopic formation of floral and shoot apical meristem in the fourth whorl. Using bulked segregant analysis (BSA), we assigned the causal mutation to the gene Solanum lycopersicum GT11 (SlGT11) that encodes a transcription factor belonging to Trihelix gene family. SlGT11 is expressed in the early stages of the flower and the expression becomes more specific to the primordium position corresponding to stamens and carpels in later stages of the floral development. Further RNAi silencing of SlGT11 verifies the defective phenotypes of the slf mutant. The carpelloid stamen in slf mutant indicates that SlGT11 is required for B-function activity in the third whorl. The failed termination of floral meristem and the occurrence of floral reversion in slf indicate that part of the C-function requires SlGT11 activity in the fourth whorl. Furthermore, we find that at higher temperature, the defects of slf mutant are substantially enhanced, with petals transformed into sepals, all stamens disappeared, and the frequency of ectopic shoot/floral meristem in fourth whorl increased, indicating that SlGT11 functions in the development of the three inner floral whorls. Consistent with the observed phenotypes, it was found that B, C and an E-type MADS-box genes were in part down regulated in slf mutants. Together with the spatiotemporal expression pattern, we suggest that SlGT11 functions in floral organ patterning and maintenance of floral determinacy in tomato.

中文翻译：

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SlGT11控制番茄中的花器官图案和花的确定性

花的发育直接影响番茄的果实产量。尽管已经在拟南芥中建立了由ABC基因介导的框架，但是番茄花发育的时空精度尚未得到很好的检验。在这里，我们分析了一种新型的番茄无雄蕊样花（slf）突变体，其中雄蕊和心皮的发育受到干扰，在第三轮中形成了类胡萝卜素结构，在第四轮中出现了异位的花和茎尖分生组织。使用大量的segregant分析（BSA），我们将因果突变分配给了基因lycopersicum GT11（SlGT11）基因，该基因编码属于Trihelix基因家族的转录因子。SlGT11在花的早期表达，并且该表达变得更加特异于在花发育的后期对应于雄蕊和心皮的原基位置。SlGT11的进一步RNAi沉默验证了slf突变体的缺陷表型。slf突变体中的类胡萝卜素雄蕊表明，SlGT11是第三轮螺中B功能活性所必需的。花分生组织的失败终止和slf中花的逆转发生表明，C功能的一部分需要第四轮中的SlGT11活性。此外，我们发现在较高的温度下，slf突变体的缺陷得到显着增强，花瓣转化为萼片，所有雄蕊均消失，并且第四轮异位芽/花分生组织的频率增加，表明SlGT11在三个内部花轮的发育中起作用。与观察到的表型一致，发现在slf突变体中B，C和E型MADS-box基因被部分下调。连同时空表达模式，我们建议SlGT11在番茄的花器官模式和维持花的确定性中起作用。