Recently, a research team led by Dr. Guozheng Qin from the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences published a study in the prestigious journal The Plant Cell, systematically elucidating the critical regulatory role of the transcription factor FvRIF in strawberry fruit ripening.

 

The study shows that FvRIF can directly activate the expression of genes related to anthocyanin biosynthesis and cell wall metabolism, promoting pigment accumulation and fruit softening. FvRIF can also bind and regulate 137 downstream transcription factors, occupying an upstream position in the regulatory network of strawberry fruit ripening. Using multiple techniques, the research team demonstrated that the MAPK protein FvMAPK6 can phosphorylate the FvRIF protein and enhance its transcriptional activity, playing an important role in fruit ripening. Unraveling the regulatory network of FvRIF provides a theoretical basis for molecular breeding to improve fruit quality.

 

This study systematically elucidates the molecular mechanism of strawberry fruit ripening and identifies important targets for breeding strategies, representing a significant advance in strawberry transcriptomics.