Silencing Sly-miR167a delayed preharvest ripening of tomato fruit

The miRNA167 (miR167a) family is a conserved type of microRNA in plants, which mainly regulates the Auxin Response Factors (ARF) family genes to influence the auxin signaling pathway and control fruit ripening. In the present study, the overexpression of miR167a (OE-miR167a) and Silencing-miR167a by short tandem target mimic (STTM-miR167a) tomato lines was obtained by Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. The results showed that the STTM-miR167a reduced the accumulation of lycopene, carotenoid and delayed preharvest ripening of tomato fruit. Additionally, STTM-miR167a lines up-regulated SlIAA genes by increasing the expression level of SlARF6 and SlARF8 to generate similar phenotypic changes to reduction in auxin response. This study expanded the cognition of function of miR167a-ARF6/8 module in the preharvest ripening and postharvest senescence of tomato fruit. •STTM-miR167a delayed preharvest ripening of tomato fruit.•OE-miR167a accelerated the preharvest ripening of tomato fruit.•The accumulation of lycopene and carotenoid were reduced in STTM-miR167a fruit.•STTM-miR167a up-regulated SlIAAs genes by increasing the expression of SlARF6/8.