Genomes Of Wild And Domestic Tomato Compared

Researchers have compared the genomes of the domestic tomato and its wild cousins for the first time.

Asian Scientist (Jun. 28, 2013) – Researchers have compared the genomes of the domestic tomato and its wild cousins for the first time.

The results, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provided insights into the genetic changes involved in domestication and may help with future efforts to breed new traits into tomato or other crops

For example, breeding new traits into tomatoes often involves crossing them with wild relatives. The new study shows that a large block of genes from one species of wild tomato is present in domestic tomato, and has widespread, unexpected effects across the whole genome.

The scientists studied the domestic tomato, Solanum lycopersicum, and wild relatives S. pennellii, S. habrochaites and S. pimpinellifolium.

Comparison of the plants’ genomes showed the effects of evolutionary bottlenecks that occurred at the original domestication in South America, and later when tomatoes were brought to Europe for cultivation.

Among other findings, the scientists found that genes associated with fruit color showed rapid evolution among domesticated, red-fruited tomatoes and green-fruited wild relatives. They also observed that S. pennellii, which lives in desert habitats, had accelerated evolution in genes related to drought tolerance, heat and salinity.

The article can be found at: Koenig et al. (2013) Comparative Transcriptomics Reveals Patterns Of Selection In Domesticated And Wild Tomato.

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Source: UC Davis; Photo: burgundavia/Flickr.
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