Solanum pennellii (LA5240) backcross inbred lines (BILs) for high resolution mapping in tomato.

Wild species are an invaluable source of new traits for crop improvement. Over the years, the tomato community bred cultivated lines that carry introgressions from different species of the tomato tribe to facilitate trait discovery and mapping. The next phase in such projects is to find the genes that drive the identified phenotypes. This can be achieved by genotyping a few thousand individuals resulting in fine mapping that can potentially identify the causative gene. To couple trait discovery and fine mapping, we are presenting large, recombination-rich, Backcross Inbred Line (BIL) populations involving an unexplored accession of the wild, green-fruited species Solanum pennellii (LA5240; the 'Lost' Accession) with two modern tomato inbreds: LEA, determinate, and TOP, indeterminate. The LEA and TOP BILs are in BC2F6-8 generation and include 1400 and 500 lines, respectively. The BILs were genotyped with 5000 SPET markers, showing that in the euchromatic regions there was one recombinant every 17-18 Kb while in the heterochromatin a recombinant every 600-700 Kb (TOP and LEA respectively). To gain perspective on the topography of recombination we compared five independent members of the Self-pruning gene family with their respective neighboring genes; based on PCR markers, in all cases we found recombinants. Further mapping analysis of two known morphological mutations that segregated in the BILs (self-pruning and hairless) showed that the maximal delimited intervals were 73 Kb and 210 Kb, respectively, and included the known causative genes. The 'Lost'_BILs provide a solid framework to study traits derived from a drought-tolerant wild tomato.

Multi-year field trials provide a massive repository of trait data on a highly diverse population of tomato and uncover novel determinants of tomato productivity.

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is a prominent fruit with rich genetic resources for crop improvement. By using a phenotype-guided screen of over 7900 tomato accessions from around the world, we identified new associations for complex traits such as fruit weight and total soluble solids (Brix). Here, we present the phenotypic data from several years of trials. To illustrate the power of this dataset we use two case studies. First, evaluation of color revealed allelic variation in phytoene synthase 1 that resulted in differently colored or even bicolored fruit. Secondly, in view of the negative relationship between fruit weight and Brix, we pre-selected a subset of the collection that includes high and low Brix values in each category of fruit size. Genome-wide association analysis allowed us to detect novel loci associated with total soluble solid content and fruit weight. In addition, we developed eight F2 biparental intraspecific populations. Furthermore, by taking a phenotype-guided approach we were able to isolate individuals with high Brix values that were not compromised in terms of yield. In addition, the demonstration of novel results despite the high number of previous genome-wide association studies of these traits in tomato suggests that adoption of a phenotype-guided pre-selection of germplasm may represent a useful strategy for finding target genes for breeding.