new work on flavor genetics - published today

[bower]

Just spotted this in the news:

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/355/6323/391
A chemical genetic roadmap to improved tomato flavor

"Commercially available tomatoes are renowned these days for sturdiness, but perhaps not for flavor. Heirloom varieties, on the other hand, maintain the richer flavors and sweeter tomatoes of years past. Tieman et al. combined tasting panels with chemical and genomic analyses of nearly 400 varieties of tomatoes. They identified some of the flavorful components that have been lost over time. Identification of the genes that have also gone missing provides a path forward for reinstating flavor to commercially grown tomatoes."

Unfortunately, could not get free access to the paper.
Hope a copy will turn up elsewhere.

[bower]

There's a bit more information in this article about the research.
The authors concluded it would be easy to make commercial tomatoes tastier in a few years - but not sweeter, because apparently ?? the amount of sugar per tomato is directly linked to yield, and lower yield would not be acceptable.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/...em-sweet-again

[Fred Hempel]

A facebook tomato friend just told me that Maglia Rosa was used to map "flavor genes". Haven't seen the article yet.

Will be interesting to see if there is any effect on Maglia Rosa seed sales.

[RJGlew]

More fine work out of Harry Klee's lab at the University of Florida. Much of his IC is available on-line at the following location, and is quite readable: http://hos.ufl.edu/kleeweb/index.html

A good video: http://www.aaas.org/news/researchers...lavor-tomatoes

Check out Garden Gem F1 while you are at the UofFl site: http://hos.ufl.edu/kleeweb/newcultivars.html A $10 (tax deductable) donation to Harry's lab gets you seeds of their newest cultivars.

As to 'Garden Gem' - well, that finally got me to eat tomatoes out of hand! The flavor, texture and size were fabulous; in fact, so good that we had them on salads every night until they finally stopped producing. My husband and I were hooked on GG, which is why I'd like another packet! New York State

Thank you for these lovely tomatoes. I don’t ever remember picking and eating tomatoes like yummy berries before in my life! They are both truly delicious fruits! Edmonton Alberta

My wife misses her daily Caprese breakfast now that edible tomatoes are no longer attainable. Two of our four boys have become fans of tomatoes. We are supporting your efforts once again to gain more seeds. Michigan

The flavor and texture are excellent and I am eating the last this week.. I plan to include both in the line up next year. Northern California

They both produced tons of the best tasting tomatoes I have ever eaten. NW Pennsylvania

When fully ripened, the tomatoes were red right through, tender and flavorful. I would definitely plant the Garden Gem again, if the seeds become more widely available. Oregon

I have been vegetable gardening for over 35 years and have never had a better tasting tomato. They were so plentiful I gave pounds away to my neighbors. Illinois

[jmsieglaff]

From the paper:

We also evaluatedan F2population with 197 individuals derivedfrom a cross between the small-fruited, high-flavor Maglia Rosa Cherry line and the large-fruited, modern inbred line FLA 8059. Each plantwas subjected to genotyping by sequencing, andfruits from each plant were chemically profiled.Loci associated with significant effects

[KarenO]

Originally Posted by Fred Hempel

A facebook tomato friend just told me that Maglia Rosa was used to map "flavor genes". Haven't seen the article yet.

Will be interesting to see if there is any effect on Maglia Rosa seed sales.

that is quite a complement to you. I hope they noted the breeder of Maglia Rosa in their study!

KarenO

[Fred Hempel]

The reason they like Maglia Rosa is because it is not a high sugar line, but it is a line that contains important volatiles that are synergistic with sugars when it comes to flavor.

I am just happy that they have identified MR as a line that has graded out high for them.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by KarenO

that is quite a complement to you. I hope they noted the breeder of Maglia Rosa in their study!

KarenO

Karen,I checked out a few links from the Lee paper and there's this one which mentions Maglia Rose

http://hos.ufl.edu/kleeweb/varietytrials.html

But only if it's a published research paper that starts with

Introduction
Materials and Methods,which includes sources
Data
Conclusion
Discussion
Summary
Thanks to folks who helped
....would one find from whom they got MagliaRose and at that they might not even ID the breeder at all, possibly just where they bought the seeds.

This is the form of a paper I'm talking about and what the heck I'll use one of my own from the dinosaur ages.

http://iai.asm.org/content/26/1/254.full.pdf

And then you end up thanking anyone you can think of as helping in one way another.

What has always bothered me when it is a paper about tomatoes is that they always refer to just the word tomato, even when it should be plural. Or refer to The Tomato

There was a list of Lee's publications given,selected ones, but I read through them and saw nothing about flavor genetics/Maglia Rose.

Carolyn

[Dutch]

Originally Posted by bower

There's a bit more information in this article about the research.
The authors concluded it would be easy to make commercial tomatoes tastier in a few years - but not sweeter, because apparently ?? the amount of sugar per tomato is directly linked to yield, and lower yield would not be acceptable.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/...em-sweet-again

Thanks Bower,
This appears to have been a joint project between the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the University of Florida.
“The research project was led by University of Florida horticulturalist Harry Klee, one of the world’s foremost tomato experts, along with Sanwen Huang, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences who ranks as one China’s most distinguished plant geneticists.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2...astier-tomato/ also http://www.newsjs.com/url.php?p=http..._136015569.htm

Dutch

[AKmark]

Originally Posted by RJGlew

More fine work out of Harry Klee's lab at the University of Florida. Much of his IC is available on-line at the following location, and is quite readable: http://hos.ufl.edu/kleeweb/index.html

A good video: http://www.aaas.org/news/researchers...lavor-tomatoes

Check out Garden Gem F1 while you are at the UofFl site: http://hos.ufl.edu/kleeweb/newcultivars.html A $10 (tax deductable) donation to Harry's lab gets you seeds of their newest cultivars.

As to 'Garden Gem' - well, that finally got me to eat tomatoes out of hand! The flavor, texture and size were fabulous; in fact, so good that we had them on salads every night until they finally stopped producing. My husband and I were hooked on GG, which is why I'd like another packet! New York State

Thank you for these lovely tomatoes. I don’t ever remember picking and eating tomatoes like yummy berries before in my life! They are both truly delicious fruits! Edmonton Alberta

My wife misses her daily Caprese breakfast now that edible tomatoes are no longer attainable. Two of our four boys have become fans of tomatoes. We are supporting your efforts once again to gain more seeds. Michigan

The flavor and texture are excellent and I am eating the last this week.. I plan to include both in the line up next year. Northern California

They both produced tons of the best tasting tomatoes I have ever eaten. NW Pennsylvania

When fully ripened, the tomatoes were red right through, tender and flavorful. I would definitely plant the Garden Gem again, if the seeds become more widely available. Oregon

I have been vegetable gardening for over 35 years and have never had a better tasting tomato. They were so plentiful I gave pounds away to my neighbors. Illinois

I grew both Garden Gem and Garden Treasure last year, I thought both of them were good tomatoes. I saved seeds from Garden Treasure for a F2 grow out

[maccherone]

Hello everybody,
could you give me some advice, on which varieties with high flavor use for introduces high flavor in cluster varieties?
I would make a cluster variety that is high in flavor but that maintain the characteristics of production, fish bone cluster and good color.
You from which varieties would you start?

[BigVanVader]

I've not grown Garden Gem but I find it hard to believe it is as good as Maglia Rosa. If you haven't grown them for comparison I'd highly recommend you do. They have a unique quality that sets them apart in flavor. Perhaps Fred's mention that MR

is a line that contains important volatiles that are synergistic with sugars when it comes to flavor

explains it, since high sugar tomatoes are not my favorite and seem to always lack complexity.

[frogsleap farm]

In answer to the where do start for high flavor, I'd go with Sungold. Almost every line in my breeding program has some Sungold in the pedigree. Maglia Rosa is also very good, providing a "tomatoey" rather than the "fruity" flavor of Sungold.

[Fred Hempel]

I would agree with this, and add that Sungold F2s seem to segregate pretty widely for flavor, so you would definitely not want to skimp on F2 plants if you are using Sungold, and then selecting for flavor.

Originally Posted by frogsleap farm

In answer to the where do start for high flavor, I'd go with Sungold. Almost every line in my breeding program has some Sungold in the pedigree. Maglia Rosa is also very good, providing a "tomatoey" rather than the "fruity" flavor of Sungold.

[maccherone]

Thanks to everybody,
but are they variety with a little bis size of Maglia Rosa and round shape?
To introduce Flavor and Taste in cluster tomatoes i need a variety with similar characteristics to speed up the breeding process.