Source: CropBiotech Update

Tomato is an important food crop world-wide, with over 120000 metric tonnes produced in 2004. As with most other crops, the bulk of the genetic variation lies within related wild relatives and landraces of cultivated tomato varieties. The screening of genetic resources of wild relatives for the introgression of desirable traits for crop improvement is therefore an important goal of modern plant breeding. Although some agronomic traits are controlled by a single gene and fall into discrete phenotypic classes, most natural variation, including that underlying many important agronomic traits, is continuous rather than discreet. Continuous variation is regulated by multiple genes, known as Quantitative Trait Loci (QTLs). QTLs differentially influence the expression of a phenotypic trait, and each segregates according to Mendel's laws.

Researchers at the Max-Planck-Institute in Germany and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, describe in the latest issue of Nature Biotechnology a novel approach that integrates data from high throughput metabolic screening with data derived from whole plant phenotype analysis. For the analysis the authors used lines of the wild species Solanum penellii in which chromosomal regions defined by genetic markers had been replaced by homologous regions of the cultivated variety of Solanum lycopersicum. The approach identified novel and previously known QTLs important for fruit metabolite production, and allowed to determine associations between these QTLs and whole plant phenotype.

As many biotechnology applications altering fruit composition also negatively affect plant yield and reproductive fitness, an integrated analysis that allows the selection of improved lines without compromising yield is of great agronomical significance.

To view the abstract of: “Comprehensive metabolic profiling and phenotyping of interspecific introgression lines for tomato improvement” visit: http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/vaop/ncurrent/abs/nbt1192.html

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