QTL analysis of morphological traits in eggplant and implications for conservation of gene function during evolution of solanaceous species

An interspecific F(2) population from a cross between cultivated eggplant, Solanum melongena, and its wild relative, S. linnaeanum, was analyzed for quantitative trait loci (QTL) affecting leaf, flower, fruit and plant traits. A total of 58 plants were genotyped for 207 restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers and phenotyped for 18 characters. One to eight loci were detected for each trait with a total of 63 QTL identified. Overall, 46% of the QTL had allelic effects that were the reverse of those predicted from the parental phenotypes. Wild alleles that were agronomically superior to the cultivated alleles were identified for 42% of the QTL identified for flowering time, flower and fruit number, fruit set, calyx size and fruit glossiness. Comparison of the map positions of eggplant loci with those for similar traits in tomato, potato and pepper revealed that 12 of the QTL have putative orthologs in at least one of these other species and that putative orthology was most often observed between eggplant and tomato. Traits showing potential orthology were: leaf length, shape and lobing; days to flowering; number of flowers per inflorescence; plant height and apex, leaf and stem hairiness. The functionally conserved loci included a major leaf lobing QTL ( llob6.1) that is putatively orthologous to the potato leaf ( c) and/or Petroselinum ( Pts) mutants of tomato, two flowering time QTL ( dtf1.1, dtf2.1) that also have putative counterparts in tomato and four QTL for trichomes that have potential orthologs in tomato and potato. These results support the mounting evidence of conservation of gene function during the evolution of eggplant and its relatives from their last common ancestor and indicate that this conservation was not limited to domestication traits.

Fine mapping of quantitative trait loci for improved fruit characteristics from Lycopersicon chmielewskii chromosome 1

The near-isogenic line (NIL) TA1150 contains a 56-cM introgression from Lycopersicon chmielewskii chromosome 1 and has several interesting phenotypic characteristics including fruit with orange color, high levels of soluble solids, thick pericarp, small stem scars, and good firmness. A set of overlapping recombinant lines (subNILs) was developed and field tested to fine map the quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling these traits. The results indicated that the solids, pericarp thickness, and firmness QTL are distinct from the color locus. Several of the QTL mapped in this study, including the soluble-solids QTL, probably correspond to QTL mapped in other wild species of tomato. However, analysis of a set of TA523 subNILs containing complementary introgressions from Lycopesicon hirsutum chromosome 1 suggests that this wild species may contain a different locus for improved soluble solids. Thus, it might be possible to combine the L. chmielewskii and L. hirsutum alleles for these loci in a single line with the potential for extremely highly soluble solids. The TA1150 subNIL TA1688 contains the smallest introgression of the solids locus (approximately 19 cM), as well as the pericarp thickness and firmness QTL, with a yield that was equivalent to two of the three control lines. Isolation of recombinant subNILs from TA1688 should break the linkage between orange color and high solids and provide a small introgressed segment for marker-assisted breeding and genetic improvement of processing tomato.

Exploitation of Arabidopsis-tomato synteny to construct a high-resolution map of the ovatecontaining region in tomato chromosome 2

High-resolution genetic and physical maps were constructed for the region of chromosome 2 containing the major fruit-shape locus ovate. A total of 3,000 NIL F2 and F3 NILs derived from Lycopersicon esculentum cv. Yellow Pear (TA503) x L. pennellii (a wild tomato) were used to position ovate adjacent to the marker TG645 and flanked by markers TX700 and BA10R (a 0.03-cM interval). BAC libraries and a BIBAC library were screened with the closest marker, TG645. Genetic mapping with the ends of isolated BAC clones revealed that two BAC clones (100 and 140 kb) both contained the ovate locus. Screening of sequences from these BAC clones revealed synteny between this segment of tomato chromosome 2 and the chromosome-4 region of Arabidopsis containing the BAC clone ATAP22. Microsynteny between the two genomes was exploited to find additional markers near the ovate locus. The placement of ovate on a BAC clone will now allow cloning of this locus and, hence, may open the door to understanding the molecular basis of fruit development and also facilitate the genetic engineering of fruit-shape characteristics. This also represents the first time that microsynteny with Arabidopsis has been exploited for positional cloning purposes in a different plant family.