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Genetic key discovered to dramatically increase yields and improve taste of hybrid tomato plants
Date:4/6/2010

sity-Cold Spring discovery, postulates that improved vigor stems from only a single gene an effect called "superdominance" or "overdominance."

To find such overdominant genes, the US-Israeli team developed a novel approach by turning to a vast tomato "mutant library" a collection of 5000 plants, each of which has a single mutation in a single gene that causes defects in various aspects of tomato growth, such as fruit size, leaf shape, etc. Selecting 33 mutant plants, most of which produced low yield, the team crossed each mutant with its normal counterpart and searched for hybrids with improved yield. Among several cases, the most dramatic example increased yield by a whopping 60%.

This hybrid, the team found, produced greater yields because there was one normal copy and one mutated copy of only a single gene that produces a protein called florigen. This protein, touted as the breakthrough discovery of the year in 2004 in Science magazine, instructs plants when to stop making leaves and start making flowers, which in turn produce fruit.

In plants such as tomatoes, flowering (and therefore yield) is controlled by a delicate balance between the florigen protein, which promotes flowering, and another related protein that delays flowering. A mutation in only one copy of the florigen gene causes the hybrid to produce more flowers in less time the key to improved yield. What the researchers found is that to maximize yield, there can't be too much or too little florigen. A mutation in one copy of the gene results in the exact dose of florigen required to cause heterosis.

The scientists have observed the gene's heterosis effect in different varieties of tomatoes and in plants grown in different climate and soil conditions, both in Israel and in New York at CSHL and the Cornell Horticultural Experiment Station at Riverhead, N.Y.

In addition to superior yield, the hybrids also display another, perhaps equally important quality taste. T
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Contact: Jerry Barach
972-258-82904
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Source:Eurekalert  

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