National Bioresource Project-Tomato in Japan: A Comprehensive Model Tomato Resources Based on ‘Micro-Tom’ Cultivar

Tomato is an excellent model plant for fruit biology research and for experimental genomic studies of the Solanaceae family including eggplant, pepper, petunia and tobacco. For facilitation of breeding and functional genomics research in tomato, the National BioResource Project (NBRP)-tomato in Japan (http://tomato.nbrp.jp/) has been launched from 2007. The major purpose of the NBRP-tomato is to collect, preserve and provide tomato bioresources including major experimental lines, mutant lines and cDNAs collections. We have chosen a cultivar Micro-Tom as a model system that has advantages as a model plant due to its small plant size, a short life cycle and the availability of functional genomics tools. A family including 7,015 and 4,620 M3 mutagenesis lines of Micro-Tom was produced by EMS-mutagenesis and gamma-ray irradiation, respectively. A total of 11,635 independent M3 families were inspected for phenotypic alteration, and 1,498 individual mutants with visible phenotype have been isolated so far. 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/). Mutant seeds are available through “TOMATOMA”. In addition to the mutant resources, the 13,227 full-length 5’-ESTs sequences from leaf, root and fruit of Micro-Tom were determined and these sequences and materials are also available through the KafTom (http://www.pgb.kazusa.or.jp/kaftom/) and MiBASE (http://www.pgb.kazusa.or.jp/mibase/). In addition, a reference genome sequence of Micro-Tom will be available soon. These tomato resources will seed-up tomato research and development.