The unwanted detachment of organs such as flowers, leaves, and fruits from the main body of a plant (abscission) has significant effects on agricultural practice. Both timely and precise regulation of organ abscission from a plant is crucial as it influences the agricultural yield. The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) has become a model system for research on organ abscission. Here, we characterized four tomato natural abscission variants named jointless (j), functionally impaired jointless (fij), functionally impaired jointless like (fij like), and normal joint (NJ), based on their cellular features within the flower abscission zones (AZ). Using eight INFLORESCENCE DEFICIENT IN ABSCISSION (SlIDA) genes and eight HAESA genes (SlHAE) identified in the genome sequence of tomato, we analyzed the pattern of gene expression during flower abscission. The AZ-specific expression for three tomato abscission polygalacturonases (SlTAPGs) in the development of flower AZ, and the progression of abscission validated our natural abscission system. Compared to that of j, fij, and fij like variants, the AZ-specific expression for SlIDA, SlIDL2, SlIDL3, SlIDL4, and SlIDL5 in the NJ largely corelated and increased with the process of abscission. Of eight SlHAE genes examined, the expression for SlHSL6 and SlHSL7 were found to be AZ-specific and increased as abscission progressed in the NJ variant. Unlike the result of gene expression obtained from natural abscission system, an in silico analysis of transcriptional binding sites uncovered that SlIDA genes (SlIDA, SlIDL6, and SlIDL7) are predominantly under the control of environmental stress, while most of the SlHSL genes are affiliated with the broader context in developmental processes and stress responses. Our result presents the potential bimodal transcriptional regulation of the tomato IDA-HAE module associated with flower abscission in tomatoes.
Keywords: HAESA; bimodal role; flower abscission; inflorescence deficient in abscission; stress; tomato.