Tomato: Breeding and Genomics

Abstract

Tomato is an important vegetable of the human diet. In tomatoes, through conventional breeding methods, many
cultivars with desirable traits have been developed. With the advancement in sequencing technologies combined with
reducing cost per sample, high-throughput genotyping platforms and bioinformatics pipelines have revolutionized
tomato improvement. After the tomato genome sequencing in 2012, thousands of cultivated and wild species have been
sequenced with respect to studies on population structure, genetic diversity, high-density maps and structural variants
analysis so on. Now, genomics-assisted research would aim to discover of QTLs/genes and associated SNP markers by
genome-wide association studies (GWAS) using high-throughput genotyping (SNP array or genotyping-by-sequencing)
for rapid breeding. Moreover, genome editing and genomics selection tools would increase breeding efficiency and
higher genetic gain in tomatoes.