ArticleNature plants2021
The chloroplast-associated protein degradation pathway controls chromoplast development and fruit ripening in tomato.
Article in Nature plants, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 56 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
56 citing papers in PubMed, 98 citations in OpenAlex.
- Metabolic cues are the main drivers for the differentiation of chloroplasts into chromoplasts and other plastid types.Journal of experimental botany · 2026Review
- Chloroplast Protein Degradation Pathways During Leaf Senescence: Coordination and Roles in Nitrogen Remobilization.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Comparative analysis of Cdc48-dependent proteolysis at the ER, mitochondria and chloroplasts.Nature communications · 2026Review
- Metabolism and regulation of chlorophyll and carotenoids in tomato fruits.Horticulture research · 2026Article
- Integrated transcriptome-metabolome analyses reveal regulatory networks underlying soluble solids accumulation in Capsicum chinense fruits.The Plant journal : for cell and molecular biology · 2026Article
- Phenolic Acid Composition and In Vitro Antioxidant Capacity in the Flesh of Thirty-ThreeFoods (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- PtCP1 Is an Extraplastidial Cysteine Protease Involved in Leaf Protein Degradation ofPlants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Selective degradation processes in plants are not limited to autophagy.Plant cell reports · 2026Review
- Assembly of two functionally-distinct protein import complexes in the outer membrane of plant chloroplasts.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Carotenoid aggregates negatively impact chlorophyll levels and disrupt chloroplast development in peaches.Molecular horticulture · 2026Article
- Regulation of chloroplast biogenesis and differentiation.Journal of experimental botany · 2026Review
- The carotenoids metabolism during tomato fruit ripening: insights into multi-level regulatory network.BMC plant biology · 2026Review
- Untargeted Metabolomics Unravel the Effect of SlPBB2 on Tomato Fruit Quality and Associated Plant Metabolism.Metabolites · 2026Article
- Tomato ripening regulator SlSAD8 disturbs nuclear gene transcription and chloroplast-associated protein degradation.Nature plants · 2025Article
- Proteostasis and protein quality control in chloroplasts: mechanisms and novel insights related to protein mislocalization.Journal of experimental botany · 2025Review
- ECLIPSE mediates selective degradation of inner nuclear membrane protein in plants.Journal of experimental botany · 2025Article
- Exploring Carbon Dot as a Fluorescent Nanoprobe for Imaging of Plant Cells under Salt/Heat-Induced Stress Conditions.Chemical & biomedical imaging · 2025Article
- Maize leaf yellowing gene ZmCAAX modulates growth and drought resistance by regulating abscisic acid contents through interaction with the ABA biosynthetic enzyme ZmNCED3.Plant biotechnology journal · 2025Article
- Tom40 functions as a channel for protein retrotranslocation in the mitochondria-associated degradation (MAD) pathway.Communications biology · 2025Article
- A novel-miR-164 from Atractylodes lancea targets AlNAC1 regulating leaf senescence.Plant cell reports · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
8 authors at 6 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The maturation of green fleshy fruit to become colourful and flavoursome is an important strategy for plant reproduction and dispersal. In tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) and many other species, fruit ripening is intimately linked to the biogenesis of chromoplasts, the plastids that are abundant in ripe fruit and specialized for the accumulation of carotenoid pigments. Chromoplasts develop from pre-existing chloroplasts in the fruit, but the mechanisms underlying this transition are poorly understood. Here, we reveal a role for the chloroplast-associated protein degradation (CHLORAD) proteolytic pathway in chromoplast differentiation. Knockdown of the plastid ubiquitin E3 ligase SP1, or its homologue SPL2, delays tomato fruit ripening, whereas overexpression of SP1 accelerates ripening, as judged by colour changes. We demonstrate that SP1 triggers broader effects on fruit ripening, including fruit softening, and gene expression and metabolism changes, by promoting the chloroplast-to-chromoplast transition. Moreover, we show that tomato SP1 and SPL2 regulate leaf senescence, revealing conserved functions of CHLORAD in plants. We conclude that SP1 homologues control plastid transitions during fruit ripening and leaf senescence by enabling reconfiguration of the plastid protein import machinery to effect proteome reorganization. The work highlights the critical role of chromoplasts in fruit ripening, and provides a theoretical basis for engineering crop improvements.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.