A Systems Biology Approach to the Elucidation of Metabolic Networks Underlying Health Based Quality Traits in Tomato Fruit.

“我们吃什么，我们就是什么”，这句话多年来一直被用来描述良好饮食成分的重要性。尽管这可能不是严格意义上的事实，但事实证明，富含水果和蔬菜的饮食对人类的福祉和健康是有益的。水果和蔬菜的有益效果归因于各种植物化学物质的协同作用。其中许多化合物，如胡萝卜素、维生素E和C，以及类黄酮类和苯丙烷类化合物都是有效的抗氧化剂，能够驱散人体新陈代谢产生的破坏性反应分子。番茄水果是重要抗氧化剂的主要饮食来源，如类胡萝卜素(特别是成熟水果中红色的番茄红素)。消费者对改善审美和营养质量的需求导致了增加作物中这些化合物水平的努力。最近，各种番茄品种都含有高水平的多种抗氧化剂。这些品种是通过操纵植物感知光线的能力而产生的，在这种情况下，使用了转基因技术。尽管这项技术目前还不为消费者所接受，但植物确实提供了一个有价值的研究工具，以研究导致番茄等作物营养增强的潜在事件。在目前的建议中，我们的目标是使用现代技术来确定这些番茄品种在果实发育和成熟过程中的化学成分和基因表达。然后将使用数学方法来整理、整合和破译这些信息。收集的数据将揭示这些番茄品种中基因和代谢物之间的相互作用，由此可以构建一个动态模型。这种方法被称为系统方法，因为它不研究特定的分子实体，而是它们如何在细胞中相互作用。显示基因和分子相互作用的动态模型将使我们能够确定细胞中发生的事件的级联，从这些事件中可以确定假定的主要调节因子。这些调节剂将通过在番茄果实细胞中的瞬时表达来测试，看看它们是否可以提高番茄果实中与健康相关的植物化学物质。所获得的知识将使SHOW能够应用现代非转基因植物育种技术来培育营养丰富、对人类健康更有利的番茄良种。

'We are what we eat' is a phrase that has been used for many years to describe the importance of good dietary components. Although this may not be strictly true, it has been shown that diets rich in fruits and vegetables are beneficial to human well-being and health. The beneficial effects of fruits and vegetables have been attributed to the synergistic effects of various phytochemicals present. Many of these compounds like carotenoids, vitamins E and C, as well as flavonoids and phenylpropanoids are potent antioxidants, with the ability to dissipate damaging reactive molecules produced by the body's metabolism. Tomato fruit are a major dietary source of important antioxidants such as carotenoids (especially the red-coloured lycopene of ripe fruit). The consumers demands for improved aesthetic and nutritional quality has lead to increased efforts to increase the levels of these compounds in crop plants. Recently tomato varieties have been produced that contain high levels of multiple antioxidants. These varieties were produced by manipulating the plants ability to perceive light, in this instance GM technology was used. Although this technology is not acceptable presently to the consumer the plants do provide a valuable research tool to study the underlying events leading to nutritional enhancement in crop plants such as tomato. In the present proposal we aim to use modern techniques to determine the chemical composition and genes expressed in these tomato varieties as their fruit develops and ripens. A mathematical approach will then be used to collate, integrate and decipher the information. The collective data will reveal the interaction between the genes and metabolites in these tomato varieties from which a dynamic model can be constructed. This approach is termed a systems approach because it does not look at specific molecule entities but how they interact in a cell. The dynamic models showing the genes and molecules interacting will enable us to determine cascades of events occurring in the cell from which putative master regulators can be identified. These regulators will be tested by transient expression in the tomato fruit cells to see if they can elevate health related phytochemical in tomato fruit. The knowledge acquired will enable show to apply modern non-GM plant breeding techniques to produce improved tomato varieties that are nutrient rich and more beneficial to human health.