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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Ithaca, New York » Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture & Health » Plant, Soil and Nutrition Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #345452
Title: Identification of a solanum pennellii chromosome 4 fruit flavor and nutritional quality-associated metabolite QTL

Author
item LIU, ZHONGYUAN - University Of Florida
item SLSEEKH, SALEH - Max Planck Institute Of Molecular Plant Physiology
item BROTMAN, YAREV - Max Planck Institute Of Molecular Plant Physiology
item ZHENG, YI - Boyce Thompson Institute
item FEI, ZHANGJUN - Boyce Thompson Institute
item TIEMAN, DENISE - University Of Florida
item Giovannoni, James
item FERNIE, ALISDAIR - Max Planck Institute Of Molecular Plant Physiology
item KLEE, HARRY - University Of Florida

Submitted to: Frontiers in Plant Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/24/2016
Publication Date: 11/9/2016
Citation: Liu, Z., Slseekh, S., Brotman, Y., Zheng, Y., Fei, Z., Tieman, D., Giovannoni, J.J., Fernie, A., Klee, H. 2016. Identification of a solanum pennellii chromosome 4 fruit flavor and nutritional quality-associated metabolite QTL. Frontiers in Plant Science. 7:1671.

Interpretive Summary: Tomato, as one of the most important fruit crops worldwide, represents a valuable source of micronutrients including amino acids, vitamins and antioxidants. Despite its importance as a crop and a major component of the human diet, fruit quality has deteriorated in recent years. In particular, the flavor of modern commercial varieties is generally perceived as poor as breeders have focused most attention on yield. Natural variation in the wild relatives of tomato is a potential source of genetic and biochemical diversity for improvement of flavor and nutrition of the cultivated tomato. Here we have mapped a major metabolite controlling genetic region to an area encoding only 20 genes (of the 35,000 in tomato). This genetic region has a broad effect on multiple metabolic pathways, many contributing to overall fruit flavor and nutritional quality. Further work is necessary to identify the causative gene(s) and the mechanism of action but the identification of this genetic region provides a target for breeders interested in improving tomato flavor and quality.

Technical Abstract: A major resource for tomato quality improvement and gene discovery is the collection of introgression lines (ILs) of cultivated Solanum lycopersicum that contain different, defined chromosomal segments derived from the wild tomato relative, S. pennellii. Among these lines, IL4-4, in which the bottom of S. lycopersicum (cv. M82) chromosome 4 is replaced by the corresponding S. pennellii segment, is altered in many primary and secondary metabolites, including many related to fruit flavor and nutritional quality. Here, we provide a comprehensive profile of IL4-4 ripe fruit metabolites, the transcriptome and fine mapping of sub-ILs. Remarkably, out of 327 quantified metabolites, 185 were significantly changed in IL4-4 fruit, compared to the control. These altered metabolites include volatile organic compounds, primary and secondary metabolites. Partial least squares enhanced discriminant analysis of the metabolite levels among sub-ILs indicated that a genome region encompassing 20 putative open reading frames is responsible for most of the metabolic changes in IL4-4 fruit. This work provides comprehensive insights into IL4-4 fruit biochemistry, identifying a small region of the genome that has major effects on a large and diverse set of metabolites.