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Beyond green and red: unlocking the genetic orchestration of tomato fruit color and pigmentation

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Abstract

Fruit color is a genetic trait and a key factor for consumer acceptability and is therefore receiving increasing importance in several breeding programs. Plant pigments offer plants with a variety of colored organs that attract animals for pollination, favoring seed dispersers and conservation of species. The pigments inside plant cells not only play a light-harvesting role but also provide protection against light damage and exhibit nutritional and ecological value for health and visual pleasure in humans. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is a leading vegetable crop; its fruit color formation is associated with the accumulation of several natural pigments, which include carotenoids in the pericarp, flavonoids in the peel, as well as the breakdown of chlorophyll during fruit ripening. To improve tomato fruit quality, several techniques, such as genetic engineering and genome editing, have been used to alter fruit color and regulate the accumulation of secondary metabolites in related pathways. Recently, clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)-based systems have been extensively used for genome editing in many crops, including tomatoes, and promising results have been achieved using modified CRISPR systems, including CAS9 (CRISPR/CRISPR-associated-protein) and CRISPR/Cas12a systems. These advanced tools in biotechnology and whole genome sequencing of various tomato species will certainly advance the breeding of tomato fruit color with a high degree of precision. Here, we attempt to summarize the current advancement and effective application of genetic engineering techniques that provide further flexibility for fruit color formation. Furthermore, we have also discussed the challenges and opportunities of genetic engineering and genome editing to improve tomato fruit color.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to two anonymous reviewers for thoroughly reviewing our manuscript. Owing the space limitations, we sincerely regret individuals whose work we were unable to cite.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Science, School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Muhammad Naeem, Weihua Zhao & Lingxia Zhao

  2. Joint Center for Single Cell Biology, Shanghai Collaborative Innovation Center of Agri-Seeds, School of Agriculture and Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 800 Dongchuan Road, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Naveed Ahmad

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  4. Lingxia Zhao
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M.N. drafted the manuscript. W.Z. and N.A. reviewed and helped in editing of the manuscript. L.Z. reviewed and supervised the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Lingxia Zhao.

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Naeem, M., Zhao, W., Ahmad, N. et al. Beyond green and red: unlocking the genetic orchestration of tomato fruit color and pigmentation. Funct Integr Genomics 23, 243 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10142-023-01162-5

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