Researchers at the University of Georgia have found that tomato genes that are lost during domestication lines include those responsible for defensive stress responses as well as flavor traits. That loss means today’s tomatoes are more likely to be disease-prone and tasteless than their progenitors.
Scientists first published the tomato genome in 2012, but like the all published genomes, the scientists who completed this feat had to focus on one reference variety to build the genetic map for the species. In last week’s paper, a University of Georgia consortium led by horticulture professor Esther van der Knaap published a pan-genome for the tomato, which is a map of all of the shared and distinct genetic information that is found in 725 geographically and phylogenetically diverse tomatoes.
The team found that a total of 4,873 genes were entirely or partially absent from the reference tomato genome published in 2012 but are present in other tomatoes, including wild relatives. They also showed that wild relatives contained more genes than their cultivated counterparts.
The team published its findings in the May edition of Nature Genetics. The full version of their paper can be found at www.nature.com.