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A tomato telomere-to-telomere super-pangenome empowers stress resilience breeding.

Shi C, Chen S, Wang J, Chen W, Sun C

Summary

PubMed

Scientists created the most complete genetic blueprint of 16 tomato species to unlock stress resistance from wild relatives, identifying genes that confer resistance to salt stress and gray mold disease for stronger modern crop varieties.

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Key Findings

1

Integrated 20 telomere-to-telomere genomes and 27 published chromosome-scale genomes to create a genus-wide super-pangenome, revealing broad genetic diversity with limited gene flow among principal clades

2

Discovered SlGMAK gene conferring gray mold resistance and identified structural variants associated with salinity resistance through genome-wide association studies

3

Pan-centromere analysis revealed diverse tomato centromere landscapes with rapid diversification and dynamic evolution across the genus

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Original Abstract

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), one of the world's most valuable vegetable crops, has suffered from diminished genetic diversity and stress resistance. Wild tomatoes serve as an invaluable genetic reservoir, yet their potential for stress resilience remains largely unexploited in tomato breeding. Here we report a genus-wide super-pangenome across 16 tomato species by integrating 20 telomere-to-telomere genomes and 27 published chromosome-scale genomes. Genus-wide population analysis demonstrates broad genetic diversity with limited gene flows among principal clades. Pan-centromere analysis reveals a diverse landscape and dynamic evolution of the mysterious tomato centromeres involving rapid diversification, satellite emergence and repositioning. A comprehensive catalog of structural variants uncovers extensive rearrangements, especially from wild tomatoes, and discovers key molecular markers associated with salinity resistance. Structural-variant-based genome-wide association studies identified a leucine-rich repeat receptor gene SlGMAK conferring gray mold resistance. Our telomere-to-telomere super-pangenome will accelerate exploiting the untapped potential of wild relatives to improve modern tomatoes for stress resilience.

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This connects to 10 other discoveries — 1 species, 4 topics, 5 related articles

Species Mentioned

Tomato
eco Tomato

The tomato is a plant whose fruit is an edible berry that is eaten as a vegetable. The tomato is a member of the nightshade family that includes tobacco, potato, and chili peppers. It originated from western South America, and may have been domesticated there, in Mexico, or in Central America. Th...

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