Use of Natural Diversity and Biotechnology to Increase the Quality and Nutritional Content of Tomato and Grape.

Quentin Gascuel,Gianfranco Diretto,Antonio J Monforte,Ana M Fortes,Antonio Granell

doi:10.3389/fpls.2017.00652

Abstract

Improving fruit quality has become a major goal in plant breeding. Direct approaches to tackling fruit quality traits specifically linked to consumer preferences and environmental friendliness, such as improved flavor, nutraceutical compounds, and sustainability, have slowly been added to a breeder priority list that already includes traits like productivity, efficiency, and, especially, pest and disease control. Breeders already use molecular genetic tools to improve fruit quality although most advances have been made in producer and industrial quality standards. Furthermore, progress has largely been limited to simple agronomic traits easy-to-observe, whereas the vast majority of quality attributes, specifically those relating to flavor and nutrition, are complex and have mostly been neglected. Fortunately, wild germplasm, which is used for resistance against/tolerance of environmental stresses (including pathogens), is still available and harbors significant genetic variation for taste and health-promoting traits. Similarly, heirloom/traditional varieties could be used to identify which genes contribute to flavor and health quality and, at the same time, serve as a good source of the best alleles for organoleptic quality improvement. Grape (Vitis vinifera L.) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) produce fleshy, berry-type fruits, among the most consumed in the world. Both have undergone important domestication and selection processes, that have dramatically reduced their genetic variability, and strongly standardized fruit traits. Moreover, more and more consumers are asking for sustainable production, incompatible with the wide range of chemical inputs. In the present paper, we review the genetic resources available to tomato/grape breeders, and the recent technological progresses that facilitate the identification of genes/alleles of interest within the natural or generated variability gene pool. These technologies include omics, high-throughput phenotyping/phenomics, and biotech approaches. Our review also covers a range of technologies used to transfer to tomato and grape those alleles considered of interest for fruit quality. These include traditional breeding, TILLING (Targeting Induced Local Lesions in Genomes), genetic engineering, or NPBT (New Plant Breeding Technologies). Altogether, the combined exploitation of genetic variability and innovative biotechnological tools may facilitate breeders to improve fruit quality tacking more into account the consumer standards and the needs to move forward into more sustainable farming practices.

Highlights

Since the dawn of agriculture in Neolithic communities some 12,000–10,000 years ago, the selection of plants exhibiting the most desirable traits has never ceased
Since the 1930s breeders, including tomato breeders, have centered their efforts on productivity and have basically neglected fruit quality, including traits of interest to consumers. This can be explained in many ways: one is the fact that it is difficult to breed for complex multigene traits such as flavor; another is our lack of understanding of the molecular genetic basis of fruit quality
Three elements required to identify the genetic basis responsible for suitable phenotypes, and to use them to improve fruit quality produced in fields, have experienced huge technological progresses in the recent years

Summary

Introduction

Since the dawn of agriculture in Neolithic communities some 12,000–10,000 years ago, the selection of plants exhibiting the most desirable traits has never ceased. This, so-called, domestication process appears to have been instrumental in our ancestors’ transition from a hunter-gatherer to an agricultural lifestyle (Gepts, 2014), and was characterized by the low number of plant species to succeed as widely-grown crops in modern societies. Since the 1930s breeders, including tomato breeders, have centered their efforts on productivity and have basically neglected fruit quality, including traits of interest to consumers (e.g., flavor or nutritious). This can be explained in many ways: one is the fact that it is difficult to breed for complex multigene traits such as flavor; another is our lack of understanding of the molecular genetic basis of fruit quality

Methods

Findings

Conclusion