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. Wild tomato S. pimpinellifolium and inbred backcross lines were assessed for individual sugars and organic acids which are two of the main components of tomato flavor. S. pimpinellifolium was found to harbor alleles that could be used to increase glucose and fructose content and adjust acidity by altering malic and citric acid levels. Single nucleotide polymorphism markers were used to detect 14 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for sugars and 71 for organic acids. Confirmation was provided by comparing map locations with previously identified loci. Thus, seven (50 %) of the sugar QTLs and 22 (31 %) of the organic acids loci were supported by analyses in other tomato populations. Examination of the genomic sequence containing the QTLs allowed identification of potential candidate genes for several flavor components.

中文翻译：

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探索具有改善番茄风味化合物潜力的茄属植物野生等位基因

大多数消费者抱怨当前番茄品种的味道，许多消费者为替代品如传家宝品种支付高价。培育水果风味很困难，因为它是一种受味道、香气和环境因素影响的数量遗传性状。现代番茄品种缺乏遗传多样性也需要探索风味等位基因的新来源。评估了野生番茄 S. pimpinellifolium 和近交回交系的单个糖和有机酸，它们是番茄风味的两个主要成分。发现 S. pimpinellifolium 含有可用于增加葡萄糖和果糖含量并通过改变苹果酸和柠檬酸水平来调节酸度的等位基因。单核苷酸多态性标记用于检测糖的14个数量性状基因座（QTL）和有机酸的71个。通过将地图位置与先前确定的基因座进行比较来提供确认。因此，其他番茄种群的分析支持了 7 个 (50%) 的糖 QTL 和 22 个 (31%) 的有机酸位点。对包含 QTL 的基因组序列的检查允许鉴定几种风味成分的潜在候选基因。