Functional genomics of the model horticultural crop, Micro-Tom.

功能基因组学是最近发展起来的，因为在模式植物拟南芥中，基因组的所有DNA序列都已经被弄清。另一方面，园艺作物的功能基因组学并不容易，因为园艺作物涉及的物种太多了。因此，利用模式园艺作物进行深入研究是必要的。拟南芥不能作为果树和果菜的模式植物。番茄不仅具有重要的商业价值，而且因其转化相对容易、生理信息丰富而被用作模式园艺植物；表达序列标签(EST)包含超过10万个序列。但也存在装置规模大、世代周期长等问题。微型番茄是一种微型西红柿，在基因上几乎与栽培西红柿相同。微型TOM具有体积小(株高5~10 cm)、世代时间短、转化效率高等优点，是一种很好的模式植物。本研究以Micro-Tom作为分子遗传学的园艺模式作物，通过对其质子泵、病原菌响应等方面的分析，证实了Micro-Tom作为模式实验植物的可行性。此外，还对果树、蔬菜等多种园艺作物进行了研究。在未来，利用Micro-TOM开发的功能基因组信息和技术有望在各种园艺作物中得到广泛应用。

Functional genomics is lately developing because all DNA sequences of the genome have been clarified in Arabidopsis thaliana that is the model plant. On the other hand, functional genomics in horticultural crops is not easy because there are so many species involved in horticultural crops. Therefore, an advanced research by using some model horticultural crops is needed. Arabidopsis thaliana is not useful as the model of the fruit trees and the fruit vegetables.Tomato is not only commercially important but also useful as a model horticultural plant because its transformation is comparatively easy ; its physiological information is abundant ; there is expressed sequence tag (EST) containing more than 100,000 sequences. However, there are some problems, which are the large plant size and the long generation time. Micro-Tom is a miniature tomato that is almost genetically identical to the cultivation tomatoes. Micro-Tom could be a good model plant because of its small size (5-10 cm of plant height), short generation time, and high transformation efficiency. Thus, Micro-Tom was used in this experiment as a model horticultural crop for molecular genetics.A high degree of availability of Micro-Tom as a model experimental plant was confirmed through the analysis of proton pump, pathogen response, etc. in this research. Moreover, the research on various horticultural crops such as the fruit vegetables and fruit trees was also carried out. In the future, the information and the technique of functional genomic developed using Micro-Tom are expected to be applied widely in various horticultural crops.