Fig. 2.

SlDof1 is required for normal tomato fruit ripening. (A) Diagram depicting the recombinant RNAi vector used in this study. The specific SlDof1 fragment was cloned into pK7GWIWG2D to generate the plasmid pK7GWIWG2D-SlDof1. The SlDof1 RNAi plasmid was transformed into tomatoes using the A. tumefaciens-mediated transformation method. 35S, CaMV 35S promoter; attB1 and attB2, Gateway recombination sites; 35ST, CaMV 35S terminator. (B) Ripening phenotype of SlDof1 RNAi lines. Fruits from wild type (WT) and SlDof1 RNAi lines (RNAi-1, RNAi-2, and RNAi-3) at 35 days post-anthesis (dpa), 38 dpa, 41 dpa, and 44 dpa are shown. (C) Expression of SlDof1 in the fruit of the WT and SlDof1 RNAi lines as determined by quantitative RT-PCR. (D) Expression of SlDof1 in leaves of the WT and SlDof1 RNAi lines. In (C) and (D), the gene transcript levels were normalized against ACTIN, followed by normalization against WT expression. (E) Lycopene accumulation in the WT and SlDof1 RNAi fruit during ripening. (F) Ethylene production in the WT and SlDof1 RNAi fruit during ripening. In (C) to (F), values are expressed as the means ± SD of three replicates. Asterisks indicate significant differences (P < 0.05; Student’s t-test) between WT and SlDof1 RNAi lines