Comparative genetic architecture of fruit traits in the three major Solanaceae fruit crops.
Abstract
Pepper, eggplant and tomato are among the most important horticultural crops worldwide. Their fruits are essential ingredients in many culinary cultures and constitute a good source of antioxidant compounds and vitamins. All three species belong to the Solanaceae family, and their diploid genomes exhibit very similar gene numbers and extensive synteny. Despite these similarities, the three species exhibit a large diversity of morphological and compositional traits, as well as different (climacteric vs non-climacteric) modes of ripening.
n the G2P-SOL project, we constructed core collections of the three species, representative of their worldwide genetic diversity. These collections were genotyped/resequenced and subjected to phenotypic characterization in multiple locations, as well as to metabolic profiling of fruits. GWA analyses identified hundreds of QTLs controlling fruit morphology and composition in each species, many of which are new and exhibit high LOD scores.
The genetic architecture of these traits in the three genomes will be discussed, in order to uncover common and species-specific genetic determinants controlling fruit characteristics in these species.