Fig 1.
Effects of exogenous ABA and NDGA treatments on tomato phenotypes and phytohormone-related physiological indexes during storage at 20°C.
(A) The morphological differences between the tomato fruits treated with exogenous ABA or NDGA and the non-treated fruits (CK). (B) Changes in ABA content as influenced by exogenous ABA and NDGA treatments during tomato ripening. (C) Changes in ethylene production as influenced by exogenous ABA and NDGA treatments during tomato ripening. (D) Effects of exogenous treatments on ACC content in tomato fruits. (E) Effects of exogenous treatments on ACS enzyme activities. (F) Effects of exogenous treatments on ACO enzyme activities. Vertical bars represents SE of three biological replicates, and asterisks (*) indicates significant difference (P < 0.05) between the value in ABA or NDGA treated fruits and that in control (CK).
Fig 2.
The overall transcriptional profiles of genes involved in biosynthesis and signaling of ABA and ethylene, respectively.
(A) The Fig showed an overview of genes expression related to ABA biosynthesis, deactivation and signaling in different treatments. (B) The Fig showed an overview of genes expression related to ethylene biosynthesis and signaling in different treatments. Analysis of the relative gene expression value (Z-score) was performed using the heatmap command in MEV 4.9.0. Red and green colors indicate relative higher and lower expression values, respectively.
Fig 3.
Analysis of DEGs involved in the pathway of ABA biosynthesis, deactivation and signaling.
Abbreviations are listed in S10 Table, and other details are the same as in Fig 2.
Fig 4.
Analysis of DEGs involved in the pathway of ethylene biosynthesis and signaling.
Abbreviations are listed in S10 Table, and other details are the same as in Fig 2.
Fig 5.
The expression of DEGs related to ABA metabolism and signaling in CK, ABA and NDGA-treated fruits at different ripening stages.
RT-PCR analysis of ZEP (A), NCED4 (B), NCED5 (C), ABA80X (D), UGT73B3 (E), PYL9 (F) and HAI2 (G) were conducted in CK vs ABA and CK vs NDGA treatment. Numbers under the x-axis represents the different time points during fruit ripening while y-axis shows relative expression in folds between CK and ABA/NDGA-treated fruits. Error bars represents SE of three biological replicates, and asterisks (*) indicates significant difference (P < 0.05) between the value in ABA or NDGA treated-fruits and that in control (CK).
Fig 6.
The expression of DEGs related to ethylene biosynthesis and signaling in CK, ABA and NDGA-treated fruits at different ripening stages.
RT-PCR analysis of SAM1 (A), SAM3 (B), ACS1 (C), ACS2 (D), ACO1 (E), ACO4;1 (F), ACO4;2 (G), RTE1 (H), ETR2 (I), EBP (J), ERF4;1 (K) and ERF4;2 (L) were conducted in CK vs ABA and CK vs NDGA treatment. Other details are the same as in Fig 5.
Fig 7.
Effects of exogenous ABA and ABA+1-MCP treatments on tomato phenotypes and phytohormone contents during storage at 20°C.
(A) The morphological differences between the tomato fruits treated with exogenous ABA or ABA+1-MCP and the non-treated fruits (CK). (B) Effects of exogenous ABA and ABA+1-MCP treatments on ABA content during tomato ripening. (C) Effects of exogenous ABA and ABA+1-MCP treatments on ethylene evolution during tomato ripening. Other details are the same as in Fig 1.
Fig 8.
The expression of DEGs related to ABA metabolism and signaling in CK, ABA and (ABA+1-MCP)-treated fruits at different ripening stages.
RT-PCR analysis of ZEP (A), NCED4 (B), NCED5 (C), ABA80X (D), UGT73B3 (E), PYL9 (F) and HAI2 (G) were conducted in CK vs ABA and CK vs ABA+1-MCP treatment. Other details are the same as in Fig 5.
Fig 9.
The expression of DEGs related to ethylene biosynthesis and signaling in CK, ABA and (ABA+1-MCP)-treated fruits at different ripening stages.
RT-PCR analysis of SAM1 (A), SAM3 (B), ACS1 (C), ACS2 (D), ACO1 (E), ACO4;1 (F), ACO4;2 (G), RTE1 (H), ETR2 (I), EBP (J), ERF4;1 (K) and ERF4;2 (L) were conducted in CK vs ABA and CK vs ABA+1-MCP treatment. Other details are the same as in Fig 5.
Fig 10.
Correlation networks of transcripts and metabolites related to ABA and ethylene.
The network diagram is visualized as “organic” layout, with different node shapes representing ABA-related genes (green ellipses), ethylene-related genes (pink hexagons) and metabolites (yellow diamonds). Edges joining the nodes correspond to correlations (| ρ | ≥ 0.40), and positive (ρ > 0) as well as negative (ρ < 0) correlations are shown in red and blue, respectively. Edge thickness is proportional to the| ρ |, while node sizes are proportional to node strengths (ns) which were shown in S11 Table. The number of nodes (n) and network strength (NS) are shown on top of the network.