INV1 — Solanum lycopersicum

Summary

SlINV1 (INV1, CWIN2) on tomato chromosome 9 encodes a protein with beta-fructofuranosidase and sucrose alpha-glucosidase activities, belonging to the Glyco_hydro_32 family. The enzyme is localised to the apoplast, plant-type cell wall and pollen tube. SlINV1 is associated with phloem loading and unloading, nectar secretion, tube development, sex differentiation, carbohydrate storage, hexose breakdown, fructose metabolism, response to amino acids, induction of programmed cell death, light absorption, mRNA modification, egg deposition, phosphate metabolism, differential growth and regulation of carbohydrate metabolism. The gene has been linked to fruit sweetness, fruit weight, size, volume, dry weight, firmness and colour, starch and sugar content, glucose and sucrose content, seed weight, leaf number and size, root fresh weight, inflorescence number, flower abortion, relative growth rate, respiration rate, net photosynthetic rate, water use efficiency, amino acid, proline, cytokinin and protein content, and sporogenesis and seed maturation. Studies of related genes in other species connect the family to male sterility, nectar production and cold-induced sweetening.