Analysing the molecular and phenotypic effects of overexpression of JOINTLESS gene in tomato

JOINTLESS (J) is a MADS-box gene that regulates inflorescence traits in tomato: its mutation reduces the number of flowers in the inflorescence, which reverts to leaf initiation, and suppresses the abscission zone (AZ) in the flower pedicels. It has been shown that the J protein physically interacts with other MADS-box transcription factors, MACROCALYX (MC) and JOINTLESS-2 (J-2) previously known as SlMBP21. Their putative targets are genes involved in AZ initiation since j, j-2 and mc mutants share this common phenotype. For a better understanding of the role of J in the architecture of the inflorescence, overexpression lines have been generated. A RNA-seq approach, comparing overexpression and wild-type lines, has been used to identify potential J-targets and better understand its molecular function.