AUTHOR=Pagliarello Riccardo , Bennici Elisabetta , Cemmi Alessia , Di Sarcina Ilaria , Spelt Cornelis , Nardi Luca , Del Fiore Antonella , De Rossi Patrizia , Paolini Francesca , Koes Ronald , Quattrocchio Francesca , Benvenuto Eugenio , Massa Silvia
TITLE=Designing a novel tomato ideotype for future cultivation in space manned missions
JOURNAL=Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences
VOLUME=9
YEAR=2023
URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/astronomy-and-space-sciences/articles/10.3389/fspas.2022.1040633
DOI=10.3389/fspas.2022.1040633
ISSN=2296-987X
ABSTRACT=Introduction: Methods for production of fresh, health food are needed in view of long-term, deep-space manned missions. To this end, crops tailored for better performance under non-terrestrial conditions may be obtained by the exploitation of biochemical patterns related to specialized metabolites known to confer protection against environmental challenges and to be beneficial to human health.
Methods: In this work, for the first time, MicroTom plants have been engineered specifically for agrospace applications to express PhAN4, a MYB-like transcription factor able to regulate the biosynthesis of anthocyanins that influence tomato genes possibly involved in agrospace-relevant functions.
Results:PhAN4 engineering underpinned the genetic background of the dwarf tomato MicroTom while maintaining yield and photosynthetic capacity. PhAN4 expression resulted in the accumulation of anthocyanins and polyphenols, a differential carotenoid profile, increased antioxidant scavenging capacities of fruits compared to the original genotype. Improved ability to counteract ROS generation and to preserve plant protein folding after ex-vivo gamma irradiation was observed.
Discussion: These results highlights that the manipulation of specific metabolic pathways is a promising approach to design novel candidate varieties for agrospace applications.