Recent Wooster Grad Part of Research Team that Discovers Gene Affecting Tomato Shape

Erin Schaffner one of five scientists to have work published in the journal Science

Erin Schaffner

WOOSTER, Ohio - Those big bright red juicy tomatoes that faithfully spring up in your backyard garden every spring rely on the sun as a source of essential nutrients to help them grow, just like everything else you plant. Now, it turns out that a different type of sun affects the shape of the tomato, according to a recent discovery by a team of scientists that includes recent College of Wooster graduate Erin Schaffner.

Schaffner, who earned her degree in biology last spring, was part of a group of scientists, headed by Esther van der Knaap of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center that identified and cloned a gene (dubbed SUN) that controls the shape of tomatoes. The research was funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation and featured as the cover article in the March issue of the journal Science.

"It was a really great experience to work with such accomplished professionals, and then to have that work published was mind-boggling," said Schaffner, who is now in her first year of medical school at The University of Toledo. "I learned so much about the scientific thought process as well as the dedication of Dr. van der Knaap and the others to the project. They were also very cordial in terms of helping me and answering my questions. I was very blessed to work with them."

The SUN gene's name was derived from Sun 1642, an oval-shaped roma-type tomato with a pointed end. Through genetic analysis, the team of scientists narrowed down a region of the genome that controls the elongated fruit shape, according to van der Knaap. Eventually, the team of researchers was able to isolate an even smaller section that could be sequenced to determine what types of genes were present. It was there that they were able to identify the one key gene (SUN) that was turned on to a high degree in tomatoes that were elongated.

"SUN doesn't tell us exactly how the fruit-shaped phenotype is altered, but what we do know is that turning the gene on is very critical to result in an elongated fruit," said van der Knaap in an OARDC press release. "We can now move forward and ask the question: Does this same gene that is closely related in sequence control fruit morphology in other vegetables and fruit crops?"

Schaffner, who began working on the project through Wooster's Sophomore Research Program in the summer of 2005, returned two years later after repeated efforts to express the SUN gene in E. coli for her Senior Independent Study project failed to produce the desired results.

"Erin learned a valuable lesson," said van der Knaap. "She was very resourceful in her efforts to overcome the problems she encountered, but in the end, it just didn't work, and that's the reality of research - many experiments fail."

Undaunted, Schaffner shifted back to the fruit-shape research work in tomato and generated valuable data for the research team. "Erin was very driven to bring her project to a conclusion," said van der Knaap. "She tested for SUN gene expression in transgenic lines and associated that with the resulting fruit shape to see if we could correlate expression and fruit shape. Ultimately, we learned that we could."

In the end, the research team was able to publish its work in one of the world's most prestigious science journals, and Schaffner was able to successfully complete her I.S. project, which left her grateful to all those who helped along the way.

"Dr. van der Knaap and her colleagues were wonderful," said Schaffner, "and so were my professors at The College of Wooster. I feel that they really helped to prepare me for medical school. Wooster's focus on writing was especially helpful."