A project to elucidate the genetic basis of taste in tomato

Tomato is one of the most important vegetable crops worldwide and an important model for fleshy fruits. Traditionally, the most important targets in fruit and vegetable breeding are producer traits, such as yield, disease resistance and shelf life. In the past decade, however, the importance of consumer-driven quality traits, such as flavour, nutritional value and appearance have been increasingly recognised. This is not only due to growing consumer demands for more healthy food with an excellent quality, but also to the availability of various `omics?tools, which make it possible to study complex, multifactorial traits, such as flavour and health. These quality traits are to a large extent determined by the phytochemical composition of our food products.Cultivated tomato has a very narrow genetic base, due to severe genetic bottlenecks experienced during domestication. In contrast, a lot of genetic diversity can be found in wild relatives of tomato, which are therefore used as novel sources of important agronomic and quality traits. In order to elucidate the biochemical and molecular genetic mechanisms underlying the quality of tomato fruit, we analysed a diverse collection of both cultivated and wild tomato germplasm for variation in colour-, health- and flavour-related metabolites. By combining such `omics?data with detailed genetic information we aim to isolate the responsible genes underlying important quality-traits and use them in a molecular breeding strategy to improve the quality of our food crops. In this lecture, the systems genetics approach will be illustrated and its potential application in breeding for postharvest quality traits will be discussed.This research was funded by the Dutch NWO genomics initiative Centre for Biosystems Genomics and the EU project EUSOL (PL-016214).The picture shows Dr. Arnaud Bovy during the presentation in Valencia and a screen showing the compounds involved in the flavour of tomato.SourceBreeding for fruit quality traits: elucidating the genetic basis of taste in tomatoY. Tikunov1, S. van Heusden1, J. Molthoff1, M. Viquez-Zamora1, R. Finkers1, J. Paulo2, A. Granell3, F. van Eeuwijk2 and A. Bovy1, arnaud.bovy@wur.nl1Wageningen UR Plant Breeding, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA, Wageningen, Netherlands. 2Biometris,Wageningen UR, P.O. Box 100, 6700 AC, Wageningen, Netherlands. 3Instituto de Biolog?a Molecular yCelular De Plantas (UPV-CSIC), Valencia, Espa?a. Email: arnaud.bovy@wur.nlXI Simposio Nacional y VIII Ib?rico Sobre Maduraci?n y PostcosechaPOST?14, XI Simposio Nacional y VIII Ib?rico sobre Maduraci?n y Postcosecha, Valencia del 21 al 23 de octubre de 2014, http://congresos.adeituv.es/postvlc2014/ ?