National BioResource Project-Tomato: Collection of ‘Micro-Tom' Mutants, Genome Sequences and Full-Length cDNAs

Tomato is a great model plant for studies of plants bearing berry-type fruits and for experimental genomic studies of the Solanaceae family due to its conserved genetic organization. In this study, a family including 8,598 and 6,422 M2 mutagenesis lines of miniature cultivar Micro-Tom was produced by EMS-mutagenesis and gamma-ray irradiation respectively. A total of 9,183 independent M₂ families were inspected for phenotypic alteration, and 1,152 individual mutants were isolated. All of the visible phenotyping data, mutant images, and other associated data (germination rate, mutation rate, first flowering date, first fruit harvesting date, flower to fruit period, and total harvested seeds) were registered the in silico database; “TOMATOMA” (http://tomatoma.nbrp.jp/index.jsp). The database is a freely accessible database and can be searched according to strain ID or freely searched according to keywords from the detailed description of phenotypes, 15 major phenotypic categories and 48 subcategories. These mutant resources are available through “TOMATOMA”. The 13,227 full-length 5’-ESTs sequences from leaf, root and fruit of Micro-Tom were determined and these sequences are available through the KafTom (http://www.pgb.kazusa.or.jp/kaftom/) and MiBASE (http://www.pgb.kazusa.or.jp/mibase/).

 Recently, the high-quality full genome sequence of tomato cv. Heinz 1706 was determined (The Tomato Genome Consortium 2012). The result of comparative analysis between Micro-Tom and Heinz 1706 genome, SNPs were not equally spread among the genome, but concentrated in specific region. A new database that provides full genome sequence of Micro-Tom is under construction and to be released. We present the current progress of our projects and its future prospect.