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Genetic engineering of parthenocarpic plants

Nature Biotechnology volume 15, pages 1398–1401 (1997)Cite this article

Abstract

Transgenic tobacco and eggplants expressing the coding region of the iaaM gene from Pseudomonas syringae pv. savastanoi, under the control of the regulatory sequences of the ovule-specific DefH9 gene from Antirrhinum majus, showed parthenocarpic fruit development Expression of the DefH9-iaaM chimeric transgene occurs during flower development in both tobacco and eggplant. Seedless fruits were produced by emasculated flowers. When pollinated, the parthenocarpic plants produced fruits containing seeds. In eggplant, the genetic manipulation allowed fruit set and growth under environmental conditions prohibitive for fruit setting in the untransformed line, which did not set fruit at all. Under normal environmental conditions, production of marketable fruits took place from pollinated and unpollinated transgenic flowers, while flowers of untransformed control plants did produce fruits of marketable size only from fertilized flowers.

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Author notes

  1. Angelo Spena: (e-mail: spena@biotech.sci.univr.it).

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute for Vegetable Crops, 26836, Montanaso Lombardo (LO), Italy

    Giuseppe Leonardo Rotino & Elena Perri

  2. Faculty of Science, University of Verona, 37134, Verona, Italy

    Michela Zottini & Angelo Spena

  3. MPI für Zuchtungsforschung, 50829, Koeln, Germany

    Hans Sommer

Authors
  1. Giuseppe Leonardo Rotino
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  2. Elena Perri
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  3. Michela Zottini
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  4. Hans Sommer
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  5. Angelo Spena
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Rotino, G., Perri, E., Zottini, M. et al. Genetic engineering of parthenocarpic plants. Nat Biotechnol 15, 1398–1401 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1297-1398

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1297-1398

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