PRESS RELEASE
 
TOMATO GENOME EXPLAINS EVOLUTIONARY SUCCESS OF FLESHY-FRUITED PLANTS

• Researchers from the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) have participated in the sequencing of the tomato genome.

• The results of the work will be published in the journal Nature and describe the main characteristics of the genome of cultivated tomatoes compared with the wild tomato and the potato.

• The functional analysis of the tomato genome reveals that the repeated genes present in the tomato explain some of the features of this fruit, as well as their evolutionary success.

Researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) have participated in the sequencing of the tomato genome. This project was conducted by an international consortium with the principal aim of providing the tomato genome sequence to public and private research groups in order to gain a better understanding of the biology of this agriculturally essential plant. The results obtained by the consortium are presented in the journal Nature and describe the regions of the tomato genome that have been key to its evolution and specialisation. The study compares the genome of the cultivated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) with two species of the same genus, the wild tomato (Solanum pimpinellifolium) and the potato (Solanum tuberosum).
By comparing the genomes of these species, researchers have observed that the genomes of the cultivated and wild tomatoes differ by only 0.6%. However, the divergence between the genomes of the tomato and potato is more than 8%. This is because, throughout their evolution, they have inverted and triplicated long fragments of their genome. These genomic reorganisations explain evolutionary changes that occurred millions of years ago and contributed to the emergence of new species of plants with fruits and their subsequent diversification. Moreover, it has been seen that some repeated fragments include genes that would be responsible for, among other things, the control of certain characteristics of the texture of the fruit such as the formation of the skin. These repetitions have helped to form a tougher skin in order to preserve the fruit better.
“The tomato is one of the most common and most exploited crop plants. Getting to know its genome in detail allows us, on one hand, to have a better understanding of the evolution of higher plants thanks to controlled populations such as cultivated ones, and it also provides new tools for future agriculture”, explains Francisco Cámara at the CRG Bioinformatics and Genomics lab, led by Roderic Guigó.
Dr. Guigó was one of the researchers who participated in the first sequencing of the human genome and he has been involved in numerous sequencing projects. His lab contributed to the tomato genome project by developing software to identify genes in the genome sequence of the tomato. Genes are the basic units of information and generally constitute a very small percentage of the genome sequence of a species. “The identification of genes is the first step in converting the genome sequence of a species into biologically relevant information”, adds Guigó.
This project was conducted by an international consortium with the involvement of several European research groups from the UK, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, along with other international groups in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, India, Argentina and the United States.
In Spain, as well as the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology of Plants-UPV-CSIC, the Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG), the "La Mayora" Subtropical and Mediterranean Horticulture Institute UMA-CSIC, the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre, the Institute for Biomedical Research (IRB) and the company Sistemas Genómicos in the Technology Park of Valencia also all took part.
 
Reference work: 
Sato S. et al. “The tomato genome sequence provides insights into fleshy fruit evolution” Nature 31 May 2012. 
For further information: 
Laia Cendrós, Press Office, Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG). 
Tel. +34 93 316 02 37