Identification of QTLs for red fruit firmness using the wild tomato species Solanum pennellii LA716 introgression lines

Abstract

The introgression lines (ILs) of the wild tomato species Solanum pennellii have been widely used to identify genes related to yield, texture, disease resistance and stress tolerance. In addition to flavour, fruit firmness is an important evaluation index and essential trait indicating tomato fruit quality. Quantitative trait loci (QTL) for fruit firmness have been identified through hand squeezing and pericarp puncturing. However, these techniques hardly reveal the force value of the whole fruit suffering from rupture or deformation. In this study, S. pennellii ILs were used to identify QTLs related to fruit firmness through flat‐plate compression. Nine QTLs for enhancing and sixteen QTLs for decreasing fruit firmness were successfully identified. Compared with that of ‘M82’, the amount of QTLs that enhance fruit firmness increased by 8.76% to 21.00%, and the amount of QTLs that reduce fruit firmness decreased by −8.27% to −30.80%. The QTL Crf12a and Crf‐R‐7b is the strongest and weakest QTL, respectively, while they are very stable in all independent biological trials. Six QTLs should be further confirmed through open‐field trials.

Evaluation of anatomical and physiological traits of Solanum pennellii Cor. associated with plant yield in tomato plants under water-limited conditions

“…The S. pennellii IL population has been extensively studied and it is now considered a model population when it comes to understanding the genetic architecture of several complex traits in tomato plants, including yield 15 , 17 , fruit quality 15 , 17 – 21 , photosynthesis 22 , leaf morphology 23 , and leaf anatomy 24 . The majority of these studies were, however, performed under well-watered conditions, which means that little is known about QTL expression under water deficit.…”

Quantitative trait locus analysis of cucumber fruit texture using double‐digest restriction‐site‐associated DNA sequencing

“…There are no reports of QTLs for rmness and crispness in cucumber, but some reports describe QTL analysis and gene identi cation of fruit texture traits in other species. Several QTLs and candidate genes for fruit rmness are reported in melon (Moreno et al 2008), grape (Carreño et al 2014;Correa et al 2016), and tomato (Chapman et al 2012;Yang et al 2016). In apple, Md-PG1, in the polygalacturonase gene family, was associated with loss of fruit rmness and crispness during storage (Costa et al 2010;Longhi et al 2013;Moriya et al 2017;Poles et al 2020).…”

Wild tomato specie Solanum pennellii as a genetic resource to discover genes of interest to tomato breeding

“…Since their creation, these ILs have been extensively tested for a large number of traits, leading to the mapping of quantitative trait loci (QTL) associated with yield (J. P. , fruit weight, soluble solids (Baxter et al, 2005;Overy et al, 2005), flavor, fruit firmness, color (Chapman et al, 2012;Dariva et al, 2021;Yang et al, 2016), primary metabolites ), morphology (Fanourakis et al, 2015, enhanced antioxidant content (Aliberti et al, 2020;Rousseaux et al, 2005), biotic stress resistance Smeda et al, 2018), and drought tolerance. The QTL information obtained from the S. pennellii I L population is summarized in the Real-Time QTL Database (http://zamir.sgn.cornell.edu/Qtl/Html/home.htm).…”

“…Because S. pennellii is a well-known source of genetic variation for several traits Calafiore et al, 2019;Lawson et al, 1997;Rousseaux et al, 2005;Steinhauser et al, 2011;Yang et al, 2016), we believe that the S. pennellii IL population is a valuable genetic resource that should be tested for germination and seedling vigor, as well as drought tolerance during the vegetative and reproductive stages. In addition, as breeding initiatives involve first finding genetic materials carrying genes of interest, followed by transferring these genes into elite germplasms, our main goals are as follows:…”