Preparation of Polyclonal Antibody and Expression Analysis of GR in Tomato

The fruit ripening of Green-ripe (Gr) mutant tomato was inhibited dramatically. To determine the expression patterns of Gr in tomato, we first produced the polyclonal antibody of Gr protein. RT-PCR was used to amplify the Gr gene from green ripe tomato fruit. And the PCR product was subcloned into prokaryotic protein expression vectors pET-30a to generate recombinant plasmid. The Gr protein was induced by IPTG in BL21 (DE3) and purified by Ni-NTA agarose column. The anti-Gr serum was produced by immunizing rabbits, and the titer of the anti-Gr serum was above 5000 by ELISA analysis. Purified by the DEAE-52 ion-column, the high purification level of anti-Gr polyclonal antibody was obtained. Furthermore, RT-CPR was used in the RNA level to demonstrate that the expression of Gr gene was specialized in some cultures of tomato. For example, the expressions of Gr were higher in seed, flower and green ripe fruit than others, and the expression level were reduced by exogenous ethylene treatment in the flower and green ripe fruit. Moreover, Polyclonal antibody of Gr was used to investigate the expression pattern of Gr in protein level by the Western blotting. Our results show that the expression level of Gr in protein level was complied with the expressions in RNA. So, we suggested that the regulation of Gr was transcriptional.