ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Genet.
Sec. Computational Genomics
Identification of the PFK Gene Family in Solanum species and 1 Expression Analysis in the Fruitof Solanum lycopersicum 2
Provisionally accepted
- 1Xinjiang Agricultural University, Urumqi, China
- 2Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Urumqi, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Abstract: Phosphofructokinase (PFK) is a key rate-limiting enzyme in glycolysis that catalyzes the 11 phosphorylation of fructose-6-phosphate and plays an essential role in sugar metabolism. In this 12 study, based on pan-genome data of the Solanum species, we performed genome-wide 13 identification and comprehensive analyses of the PFK gene family in 12 tomato species, including 14 cultivated tomato and its wild relatives. A total of 156 PFK genes were identified and classified 15 into two subfamilies: PFK and PFP (PFP-α and PFP-β). Through phylogenetic analysis, gene 16 structure examination, conserved motif identification, chromosomal localization, collinearity 17 analysis, Ka/Ks ratio estimation, promoter cis-acting element prediction, protein-protein 18 interaction network construction, and expression profiling, we systematically revealed the 19 potential functions of PFK genes in tomato fruit development and sugar metabolism. The results 20 showed that PFK genes exhibited distinct expression patterns across different stages of fruit 21 development (expansion, green ripening, color change, and red ripening stages), with several 22 members (e.g., SolyPFK07 and SolyPFPA2) playing key roles in sugar accumulation and fruit 23 development. Promoter analysis indicated that PFK genes respond to developmental cues, 24 hormone signaling, and abiotic stresses, suggesting their involvement in regulating tomato growth, 25 development, and stress adaptation. Collectively, this study provides a theoretical foundation for 26 elucidating the functional roles of PFK genes in tomato fruit development and sugar metabolism 27 and offers valuable insights for the molecular breeding of high-quality tomato cultivars.
Keywords: expression analysis, Fruit development, PFK gene family, Sugar metabolism, tomatopangenome
Received: 03 Nov 2025; Accepted: 09 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Wang, Wang, Xu, Meng, Wang, Li and Yu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Ning Li
Qinghui Yu
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.