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Dissection of GA 20-oxidase members affecting tomato morphology by RNAi-mediated silencing

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Abstract

GA 20-oxidase is a key enzyme involved in gibberellin (GA) biosynthesis. In tomato, the GA 20-oxidase gene family consists of three members: GA20ox1, GA20ox2, and GA20ox3. To investigate the roles of these three genes in regulating plant growth and development, we used RNA interference technology to generate three kinds of transgenic tomato plants with suppressed expression of each three individual genes. Suppression of GA20ox1 or GA20ox2 resulted in shorter stems, a decreased length of internodes, and small dark green leaves while plants with decreased expression of GA20ox3 had no visible changes on stems and leaves. The plants of the three transgenic lines can flower and set fruits normally, but the seeds from these plants germinated slower than that from the normal plants. Decreased levels of endogenous GAs were detected in the apex of the three transgenic lines. These results demonstrate that the three GA 20-oxidase genes play different roles in the control of plan vegetative growth, but show no effects on flower and fruit development.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr Zhangjun Fei for critical review of this manuscript and Ms Michelle Yu for proofreading. This research was financially supported by grant from the National Natural Science Foundation of P.R. China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Jinghua Xiao, Hanxia Li, Junhong Zhang, Rugang Chen, Yuyang Zhang, Bo Ouyang & Zhibiao Ye

  2. College of Horticulture and Forestry Sciences, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Taotao Wang

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  1. Jinghua Xiao
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  2. Hanxia Li
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  3. Junhong Zhang
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  7. Taotao Wang
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Correspondence to Zhibiao Ye.

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Equal contribution authors: J. Xiao and H. Li.

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Xiao, J., Li, H., Zhang, J. et al. Dissection of GA 20-oxidase members affecting tomato morphology by RNAi-mediated silencing. Plant Growth Regul 50, 179–189 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-006-9117-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-006-9117-3

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