360-Degree View of the Tomato

Researchers have sequenced 360 varieties of the tomato plant to create a comprehensive map of the evolution of the fruit from its wild form to the modern varieties.

head shot of blond woman wearing glasses
| 4 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
4:00
Share

The three evolutionary stages of tomatoes. From the left to right: Solanum pimpinellifolium, S. lycopersicum var. cerasiforme and S. lycopersicum.INSTITUTE OF VEGETABLES AND FLOWERS IN THE CHINESE ACADEMY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES, BEIJING, CHINAThe typical red, modern tomato is about one hundred times bigger than its pea-sized wild ancestor, which originally came from the Andes region in South America. To track the long history of tomato breeding and understand how such human-imposed selection has changed the genome of the plant, an international team of researchers, have sequenced 360 tomato plant varieties, including wild and domesticated species. The results are published today (October 12) in Nature Genetics.

“Two years ago we only had one genome and now we have more than 300!” said Harry Klee, a horticultural scientist at the University of Florida who studies tomatoes and was not involved in the current study. “What makes this work really important is that it’s a foundation for future improvements on the tomato. We can now find causative genes for the traits we want. This is going to have a huge impact for tomato breeding very quickly.”

The large-scale effort, led by Sanwen Huang of the Institute of Vegetables and Flowers at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing, China, has uncovered a signature of the modern, processing tomato used to make ketchup, a variant that gives some tomato varieties a pink color, ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here

Keywords

Meet the Author

  • head shot of blond woman wearing glasses

    Anna Azvolinsky

    Anna Azvolinsky is a freelance science writer based in New York City.
Share
3D illustration of a gold lipid nanoparticle with pink nucleic acid inside of it. Purple and teal spikes stick out from the lipid bilayer representing polyethylene glycol.
February 2025, Issue 1

A Nanoparticle Delivery System for Gene Therapy

A reimagined lipid vehicle for nucleic acids could overcome the limitations of current vectors.

View this Issue
Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

sartorius logo
Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Lonza
An illustration of animal and tree silhouettes.

From Water Bears to Grizzly Bears: Unusual Animal Models

Taconic Biosciences
Sex Differences in Neurological Research

Sex Differences in Neurological Research

bit.bio logo

Products

Photo of a researcher overseeing large scale production processes in a laboratory.

Scaling Lentiviral Vector Manufacturing for Optimal Productivity

Thermo Fisher Logo
Collage-style urban graphic of wastewater surveillance and treatment

Putting Pathogens to the Test with Wastewater Surveillance

An illustration of an mRNA molecule in front of a multicolored background.

Generating High-Quality mRNA for In Vivo Delivery with lipid nanoparticles

Thermo Fisher Logo
Tecan Logo

Tecan introduces Veya: bringing digital, scalable automation to labs worldwide