Leah Sim – Chemistry

Purple Identifying quantitative trait loci for purple fruit pigmentation in tomato

Vegetable production and improvement is increasingly focused on quality of food with respect to human health and nutrition. Many plant phytochemicals such as anthocyanins are thought to be important to human health because they have anti-oxidant or other biological activity. The present study was aimed at understanding the genetic basis of anthocyanin in fruit of a wild tomato, S. galapagense. High levels of the anthocyanin delphinidin impart a deep purple color to the fruit of S. galapagense LA1141. Genetic mapping using an inbred backcross population based on color identified quantitative trait loci (QTL) on chromosomes 6, 7, and 10. I found that purple fruit pigmentation is significantly associated with an allele of the MYB Ant1_1 transcription factor on chromosome 10. While chromosome 7 also appeared to contain a region of significant association, the MYB transcription factor ATV did not appear to be a candidate. These results can help us understand the origin of the purple fruit pigmentation mutation as well as tools in the form of DNA-based markers that can be used to alter the levels of anthocyanins in tomatoes.

Purple fruit pigmentation in tomato is controlled by a gene on chromosome 10