Evaluation of the involvement of HSC70 gene in the growth and development of tomato

Abstract

Tomato is one of the high-value agricultural crops. The HSP70 gene family is thought to play an important role in plant tolerance to various environmental factors. A family member known as HSC70 is predicted to be involved in plant growth and development, however, its biological functions have not been demonstrated clearly. This study was conducted with the aim to characterise the HSC70 gene in tomato plants and evaluate its contribution to tomato growth through phenotypic analysis of plant mutants with defects in the HSC70 gene. The research results showed that nonsense mutationin the HSC70 gene caused short plant and reduced the seed germination rate and fruit set rate of tomato. However, these missense mutations did not change these phenotypes significantly. The leaf shape, leaf structure, and flowering time of tomato were not affected by the HSC70 mutations. These findings provided preliminary insights for further study on the role of the HSC70gene in the germination, elongation, and fruit setting of tomato plants.