The plant disease resistance system involves a very complex regulatory network in which jasmonates play a key role in response to external biotic or abiotic stresses. As inhibitors of the jasmonic acid (JA) signaling pathway, JASMONATE ZIM domain (JAZ) proteins have been identified in many plant species, and their functions are gradually being clarified. In this study, 26 JAZ genes were identified in tomato. The physical and chemical properties, predicted subcellular localization, gene structure, cis-acting elements, and interspecies collinearity of 26 SlJAZ genes were subsequently analyzed. RNA-seq data combined with qRT-PCR analysis data showed that the expression of most SlJAZ genes were induced in response to Stemphylium lycopersici, methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and salicylic acid (SA). Tobacco rattle virus RNA2-based VIGS vector (TRV2)-SlJAZ25 plants were more resistant to tomato gray leaf spots than TRV2-00 plants. Therefore, we speculated that SlJAZ25 played a negative regulatory role in tomato resistance to gray leaf spots. Based on combining the results of previous studies and those of our experiments, we speculated that SlJAZ25 might be closely related to JA and SA hormone regulation. SlJAZ25 interacted with SlJAR1, SlCOI1, SlMYC2, and other resistance-related genes to form a regulatory network, and these genes played an important role in the regulation of tomato gray leaf spots. The subcellular localization results showed that the SlJAZ25 gene was located in the nucleus. Overall, this study is the first to identify and analyze JAZ family genes in tomato via bioinformatics approaches, clarifying the regulatory role of SlJAZ25 genes in tomato resistance to gray leaf spots and providing new ideas for improving plant disease resistance.
Flowering reversion is a common phenomenon in plant development in which differentiated floral organs switch from reproductive growth to vegetative growth and ultimately form abnormal floral organs or vegetative organs. This greatly reduces tomato yield and quality. Research on this phenomenon has recently increased, but there is a lack of research at the molecular and gene expression levels. Here, transcriptomic analyses of the inflorescence meristem were performed in two kinds of materials at different developmental stages, and a total of 3223 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were screened according to the different developmental stages and trajectories of the two materials. The analysis of database annotations showed that these DEGs were closely related to starch and sucrose metabolism, DNA replication and modification, plant hormone synthesis and signal transduction. It was further speculated that tomato flowering reversion may be related to various biological processes, such as cell signal transduction, energy metabolism and protein post-transcriptional regulation. Combined with the results of previous studies, our work showed that the gene expression levels of CLE9, FA, PUCHI, UF, CLV3, LOB30, SFT, S-WOX9 and SVP were significantly different in the two materials. Endogenous hormone analysis and exogenous hormone treatment revealed a variety of plant hormones involved in flowering reversion in tomato. Thus, tomato flowering reversion was studied comprehensively by transcriptome analysis for the first time, providing new insights for the study of flower development regulation in tomato and other plants.