Repository logo
 

Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies provides insights into genetic control of tomato flavor

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Zhao, Jiantao 
Sauvage, Christopher 
Zhao, Jinghua 
Bitton, Frédérique 
Bauchet, Guillaume 

Abstract

Tomato flavor has changed over the course of long-term domestication and intensive breeding. To understand the genetic control of flavor, we report the meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) using 775 tomato accessions and 2,316,117 SNPs from three GWAS panels. We discover 305 significant associations for the contents of sugars, acids, amino acids, and flavor-related volatiles. We demonstrate that fruit citrate and malate contents have been impacted by selection during domestication and improvement, while sugar content has undergone less stringent selection. We suggest that it may be possible to significantly increase volatiles that positively contribute to consumer preferences while reducing unpleasant volatiles, by selection of the relevant allele combinations. Our results provide genetic insights into the influence of human selection on tomato flavor and demonstrate the benefits obtained from meta-analysis.

Description

Keywords

Citric Acid, Fructose, Fruit, Genome-Wide Association Study, Glucose, Solanum lycopersicum, Malates

Journal Title

Nature Communications

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

2041-1723
2041-1723

Volume Title

10

Publisher

Springer Nature
Sponsorship
J-T.Z. was funded by a Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) scholarship.