Mapping of quantitative trait loci for the nutritional value of fresh market tomato.

The incidence of many diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes, is associated with malnutrition and an unbalanced daily diet. Vegetables are an important source of vitamins and essential compounds for human health. As a result, such metabolites have increasingly become the focus of breeding programs.

Chromatographic Analysis for Targeted Metabolomics of Antioxidant and Flavor-Related Metabolites in Tomato.

Targeted metabolomics is a useful approach to evaluate crop breeding studies. Antioxidant and flavor-related traits are of increasing interest and are considered quality traits in tomato breeding. The present study presents chromatographic methods to study antioxidants (carotenoids, vitamin C, vitamin E, phenolic compounds, and glutathione) and flavor-related characters (sugars and organic acids) in tomato.

Exploring wild alleles from Solanum pimpinellifolium with the potential to improve tomato flavor compounds.

Most consumers complain about the flavor of current tomato cultivars and many pay a premium for alternatives such as heirloom varieties. Breeding for fruit flavor is difficult because it is a quantitatively inherited trait influenced by taste, aroma and environmental factors. A lack of genetic diversity in modern tomato cultivars also necessitates exploration of new sources for flavor alleles.

Mapping of quantitative trait loci for antioxidant molecules in tomato fruit: Carotenoids, vitamins C and E, glutathione and phenolic acids.

The nutritional value of a crop lies not only in its protein, lipid, and sugar content but also involves compounds such as the antioxidants lycopene, β-carotene and vitamin C. In the present study, wild tomato Solanum pimpinellifolium LA 1589 was assessed for its potential to improve antioxidant content. This wild species was found to be a good source of alleles for increasing β-carotene, lycopene, vitamin C and vitamin E contents in cultivated tomato.