查看文章

DELLA proteins are plant nuclear factors that restrain growth and proliferation in response to hormonal signals. The effects of the manipulation of the DELLA pathway in the making of a berry‐like fruit were investigated. The expression of the Arabidopsis thaliana gain‐of‐function DELLA allele Atgai ^del in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) produced partially sterile dwarf plants and compacted influorescences, as expected for a constitutively activated growth repressor. In contrast, antisense silencing of the single endogenous tomato DELLA gene homologue (SlDELLA) produced slender‐like plants with elongated flower trusses. Interestingly, the depletion of SlDELLA in tomato was sufficient to overcome the growth arrest normally imposed on the ovary at anthesis, resulting in parthenocarpic fruits in the absence of pollination. Antisense SlDELLA‐engineered fruits were smaller in size and elongated in shape …