The ancestral tomato species are known to possess genes that are valuable for improving traits in breeding. Here, we aimed to construct high-quality de novo genome assemblies of Solanum pimpinellifolium ‘LA1670’ and S. lycopersicum var. cerasiforme ‘LA1673’, originating from Peru. The Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) long-read sequences with 110× and 104× coverages were assembled and polished to generate 244 and 202 contigs spanning 808.8 Mbp for ‘LA1670’ and 804.5 Mbp for ‘LA1673’, respectively. After chromosome-level scaffolding with reference guiding, 14 scaffold sequences corresponding to 12 tomato chromosomes and 2 unassigned sequences were constructed. High-quality genome assemblies were confirmed using the Benchmarking Universal Single-Copy Orthologs and long terminal repeat assembly index. The protein-coding sequences were then predicted, and their transcriptomes were confirmed. The de novo assembled genomes of S. pimpinellifolium and S. lycopersicum var. cerasiforme were predicted to have 71,945 and 75,230 protein-coding genes, including 29,629 and 29,185 non-redundant genes, respectively, as supported by the transcriptome analysis results. The chromosome-level genome assemblies coupled with transcriptome data sets of the two accessions would be valuable for gaining insights into tomato domestication and understanding genome-scale breeding.

Parthenocarpy arises when an ovary develops into fruit without pollination/fertilization. The mechanisms involved in genetic parthenocarpy have attracted attention because of their potential application in plant breeding and also for their elucidation of the mechanisms involved in early fruit development. We have isolated and characterized a novel small parthenocarpic fruit and flower ( spff ) mutant in the tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) cultivar Micro-Tom. This plant showed both vegetative and reproductive phenotypes including dwarfism of floral organs, male sterility, delayed flowering, altered axillary shoot development, and parthenocarpic production of small fruits. Genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism array analysis coupled with mapping-by-sequencing using next generation sequencing-based high-throughput approaches resulted in the identification of a candidate locus responsible for the spff mutant phenotype. Subsequent linkage analysis and RNA interference-based silencing indicated that these phenotypes were caused by a loss-of-function mutation of a single gene ( Solyc04g077010 ), which encodes a receptor-like protein kinase that was expressed in vascular bundles in young buds. Cytological and transcriptomic analyses suggested that parthenocarpy in the spff mutant was associated with enlarged ovarian cells and with elevated expression of the gibberellin metabolism gene, GA20ox1 . Taken together, our results suggest a role for Solyc04g077010 in male organ development and indicate that loss of this receptor-like protein kinase activity could result in parthenocarpy.

No abstract

No abstract