Kommentare zu: Tomatoes – from all around the world

Von: Ghazal

Ghazal — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 11:03:49 +0000

Dear Michael, I had a look in a gardening book, and they mentioned that most of the tomatoes that you buy nowadays are in fact F1 hybrids. Then, the seeds which you picked from the fruits last year now gave rise to F2 plants. I guess its difficult to make any straight genetic analysis from the few plants you have in your pot now.
I am seeing forward to taste the first ripe tomatoes from your experiment
Take Care
/ghazal

Von: radius

radius — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 14:02:05 +0000

Ghazal Dear, In terms of feasibility, mice have certain advantages over tomatoes for genetic studies. First of all, mice reproduction cycle is 3 month, tomatoes needs about 8 month to get the next generation (assuming one has a glass house with artificial light). And in mice we have all the fancy genetic manipulation tools available, like knockout and transgenics etc.
But tomatoes not only score for their nice smell and taste as compared to mice. One big advantage is that from one parental plant you might easily get several hundreds of offspring. Therefore, tomatoes were one of the first species in which QTLs (for fruit acidity, vit C and sugar content) could be analyzed and used for later breeding strategies.
(http://www.genetics.org/content/118/2/329.long)
So the tomatoes were used for the same purpose as you used the backcrossed mice here.
Take Care
Michael

Von: Ghazal

Ghazal — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 14:01:26 +0000

Hi michael

so you are studying tomato genetics in your office now ? Did you quit the mouse projects ? I think you like the tomato project more since they smell better and you have something delicious to eat.
Take Care
/ghazal