Deciphering the regulatory CODE of gene expression during ENDoreduplication in TOMato – TomENDCODE

Why plants produce cells with increased nuclear DNA content while they have a diploid genome is an unsolved question in biology. Somatic polyploidy is a common process in multicellular eukaryotes leading to genome multiplication and often occurs simultaneously with cell expansion in growing organs, such as in tomato fruits. During endoreduplication, chromatin states and conformation together with transcription factors can influence ploidy-specific gene expression and thus have an impact on cell and organ growth. We will combine single nucleus, genomics and reverse genetic approaches i) to study the transcriptomic signature and trajectory of endoreduplicated cells, ii) to study the changes of chromatin states and organisation during endoreduplication iii) to link these ploidy-specific changes to changes in gene expression, and identify the transcriptional regulators of ploidy-specific expression, and iv) to test how altering transcriptional regulators related to endoreduplication affects ploidy-specific expression, endoreduplication and thus fruit growth.