Seminars

Modern commercial tomato varieties are substantially less flavorful than heirloom varieties. To understand and ultimately correct that deficiency, we quantified flavor-associated chemicals in 398 modern, heirloom and wild accessions. A subset of these accessions were evaluated in consumer panels, identifying the chemicals making the most important contributions to flavor and consumer liking. Modern commercial varieties contain significantly lower amounts of many of these important flavor chemicals than older varieties. Whole genome sequencing and a genome-wide association study allowed us to identify genetic loci affecting most of the target flavor chemicals, including sugars, acids and volatiles. Together, these results provide an understanding of the flavor deficiencies in modern commercial varieties and the information necessary for recovery of good flavor through molecular breeding.

Reference: Tieman D et al., (2017) A chemical genetic roadmap to improved tomato flavor. Science. 355, 391-394.