Research — Dr. Cornelius Barry, Assistant Professor

Genetic determinants of fruit quality and ripening

Fleshy fruits have evolved to perform two complementary functions. Firstly, they protect the developing seeds from predation using a range of chemical and physical barriers. Then, once the seeds are fully developed and mature, fleshy fruits facilitate seed dispersal through the initiation of ripening. Fleshy fruits are highly diverse, they differ in size, shape, color, texture and flavor. However, despite this diversity there are evolutionary conserved changes that accompany ripening in many species including changes in color, increased softening, accumulation of sugars and the production of aroma compounds. The commonality of these processes suggest that there are underlying genetic mechanisms that regulate ripening in diverse species.  A goal of my laboratory is to contribute to the understanding of the genetic mechanisms that influence fruit ripening and quality. To achieve these goals we are using tomato as a model system coupled with genetic and genomics based approaches. To date, we have identified loci that impact ethylene responses, chlorophyll degradation and ripening time. Current efforts are focused on characterizing these genes and identifying additional loci responsible for conferring mutant phenotypes in tomato.   

Exploring diversity within the Solanaceae

Determination of the mechanisms that contribute to natural variation between species leading to divergent evolution and ecological adaptation represents one of the central research directions in biology. The Solanaceae (nightshade family) is particularly well suited for comparative sudies of evolution because it is a large and diverse family of approximately 3000 species that occupy varied ecological niches including species that thrive in tropical rain forests, at high altitudes in the mountain ranges of the Andes, and in desert environments. In addition, several Solanaceae species are important model crop plants including potato, tomato, pepper, eggplant, tobacco and petunia. We are interested in investigating phenotypic diversity within the Solanaceae with a primary focus on fruit biology. We are utilizing metabolite profiling to investigate chemical diversity in the Solanaceae and high-throughput sequencing technologies to generate EST collections from selected species. These EST collections will be utilized for comparative analysis with model Solanaceae species to investigate allelic diversity, differential gene expression and correlations between gene expression and the occurrence of metabolites.  

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