Every year, gardeners grapple with how to grow a tastier tomato.
Now scientists are tapping into the fruit's secrets, too. The
first high-quality genome sequence of the tomato, reported
online today in Nature, reveals the genes responsible for
everything from the fruit's color to the sources of its famous
antioxidant, lycopene. The tomato (left) shares all but 8% of
its more than 34,000 protein-coding genes with its close
relative, the recently sequenced potato. The tomato is even more
similar to its wild cousin, the small-fruited, hardy and usually
green tomato, Solanum pimpinellifolium (right); the two share
all but 0.6% of their genome, which suggests they've been
recently crossed. The completed genome could help scientists
pinpoint how and when the tomato was first domesticated, and it
may even lead breeders to that holy grail: an even better
tomato. And in case you're wondering, yes, the genome confirms
that the tomato is indeed a fruit, not a vegetable. See more
ScienceShots.