Tomato Sequenced

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Nicholas Wade,  Red, Ripe, Juicy and Bursting With Genes; Possessing 31,760 genes, 7,000 more than humans have. New York Times, May 31, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/3 ... ing-with-genes.html
("tomato has a close cousin that is a vegetable, namely the potato. The genomes of the two plants have 92 percent of their DNA in common, the tomato researchers report. The main difference is that the potato is thought to have a handful of genes that direct the plant’s energy away from producing fruit and into the generation of tubers. But even with the genomes of the two plants deciphered, those genes have not yet been identified")

Note:
(a) Later in the NYT report, genome "triplication" was mentioned. If you are not a biologist, it is all right if you do not understand the term.
(b) There is no need to read the rest--besides quotation below--of the note (c) to (f).
(c) tomato
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomato
(Solanum lycopersicum)
(d) potato
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potato
(Solanum tuberosum; a single-origin domestication for potatoes in the area of present-day southern Peru and extreme northwestern Bolivia, where they were domesticated 7,000–10,000 years ago)
(e) For "deadly nightshade," see Atropa belladonna
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atropa_belladonna
(The foliage and berries are extremely toxic, containing tropane alkaloids. These toxins include scopolamine and hyoscyamine which cause a bizarre delirium and hallucinations; The drug atropine is derived from the plant; The genus name "atropa" comes from Atropos, one of the three Fates in Greek mythology, and the name "bella donna" is derived from Italian and means "beautiful woman")

Atropa belladonna is in a different genus from tomato or potato, but in the same "family" (Solanaceae).

(f) From the May 31, 2012 issue of Nature.
(i) You Say Tomato; Genome studies of food crops offer a powerful way for plant breeders to create products with the most advantageous attributes. Nature, 485: 547.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v485/n7400/full/485547a.html

Quote:

"The average Italian eats 16.5 kilograms of fresh tomatoes a year — the average American consumes even more.

"tomatoes [are] tastier in years gone by * * * That is not just a question of subjective perception, either — they contain more of the sugar and acids that make up flavour than the ancestral strains do. And that is all thanks to conventional plant breeders.

" The paper reports the sequences of both the inbred tomato strain Heinz 1706 — generated by the company whose founder Henry Heinz changed the world of tomato ketchup — and its wild ancestor Solanum pimpinellifolium.

(ii) The Tomato Genome Consortium, The tomato genome sequence provides insights into fleshy fruit evolution. Nature 485, 635–641 (2012).
http://www.nature.com/nature/jou ... ll/nature11119.html