Wild tomato species focus of antioxidant study

Results can help breeders improve health-related traits in cultivated tomatoes

2014-10-09

(Press-News.org) IZMIR, TURKEY – Tomatoes are known to be rich in antioxidants such as vitamin C, lycopene, β-carotene, and phenolics. Antioxidants, substances capable of delaying or inhibiting oxidation processes caused by free radicals, are of interest to consumers for their health-related contributions, and to plant breeders for their ability to provide plants with natural resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. While tomato domestication and breeding programs have typically focused on traits such as fruit weight, color, shape, and disease resistance, scientists are now looking at ways to develop tomato cultivars that boast higher antioxidant traits.

Plant breeders know that the best source for improvement of a crop plant is often its wild species. Wild species retain allelic (trait) diversity, which is lost during domestication and breeding. To date, wild tomato species have been widely used for improvement of tomato disease resistance, but have not been extensively explored for health-related traits.

Scientists from the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Izmir Institute of Technology in Turkey published a unique study in HortScience that compared antioxidant traits for wild tomatoes with those of cultivated varieties. Their results, they say, can be used to design a breeding program with the purpose of improving antioxidant characteristics in elite tomato lines. A research team led by Professor Sami Doğanlar analyzed three different interspecific populations of Solanum peruvianum, Solanum habrochaites, and Solanam pimpinellifolium for antioxidant and agronomic traits. They tested each population for total water-soluble antioxidant activity, phenolic content, fruit weight, fruit shape, fruit color, and vitamin C content.

"Our analyses showed that the Solanum habrochaites population provided the best starting material for improvement of water-soluble antioxidant activity and phenolics content with 20% and 15% of the population, respectively, significantly exceeding the parental values for these traits," the scientists wrote. The Solanum habrochaites population also contained individuals that had nearly 2-fold more water-soluble antioxidant activity and phenolic content than cultivated tomato. The Solanum peruvianum population was determined to be best for improvement of vitamin C content, with 3-fold variation for the trait and individuals, which had twice as much vitamin C as cultivated tomato.

"Our work shows that wild tomato species harbor alleles that could be useful for improvement of antioxidant traits in cultivated tomato," Doğanlar noted. "In fact, some of the backcross progeny from the populations used in this study could be used for breeding of these traits."

INFORMATION: The complete study and abstract are available on the ASHS HortScience electronic journal web site: http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/49/8/1003.abstract

Founded in 1903, the American Society for Horticultural Science (ASHS) is the largest organization dedicated to advancing all facets of horticultural research, education, and application. More information at ashs.org.

[Attachments] See images for this press release:

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Study examines effect of antibiotic susceptibility for patients with bloodstream infection

2014-10-09

In an analysis of more than 8,000 episodes of Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infections, there were no significant differences in the risk of death when comparing patients exhibiting less susceptibility to the antibiotic vancomycin to patients with more vancomycin susceptible strains of S. aureus, according to a study published in JAMA. The study is being released early online to coincide with the IDWeek 2014 meeting. Staphylococcus aureus is among the most common causes of health care-associated infection throughout the world. It causes a wide range of infections, ...

Hospitalized children benefit from antibiotic stewardship programs

2014-10-09

PHILADELPHIA – Hospitalized children go home sooner and are less likely to be readmitted when the hospital has an antibiotic stewardship program that's dedicated to controlling antibiotic prescriptions and treatment, according to a study being presented at IDWeek 2014™. The study is the first to show the benefits of such programs on children's health. Antibiotic stewardship programs are increasingly being used to manage how and when antibiotics are being prescribed in hospitals and other health care facilities across the country. Often led by epidemiologists or ...

Chemists uncover new role of a key base in organic synthesis

2014-10-09

An international team of chemists has discovered a new piece to the puzzle of how a powerful base used in organic synthesis, cesium carbonate, plays a pivotal role during a catalytic reaction. The research, published by the Journal of the American Chemical Society, was led by Jamal Musaev, a theoretical chemist at Emory University, and Ken Itami, an experimental chemist from Nagoya University in Japan. Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, China, also contributed to the findings. Many organic chemistry reactions are acid/base reactions, involving the exchange of positively ...

NASA eyes Tropical Cyclone Hudhud as Warnings posted for East-Central India

2014-10-09

NASA's Aqua satellite flew over Tropical Cyclone Hudhud on Oct. 9 and took a picture of the storm that showed it was still somewhat elongated, but more organized than the previous day. Another NASA satellite provided the hint of a developing eye. Warnings for winds, rain and surf are already in effect for the northern Andhra Pradesh coast and south Odisha coastline of eastern India as Hudhud approaches. Tropical Cyclone Hudhud formed on Oct. 8 and began moving from east to west across the Bay of Bengal, Northern Indian Ocean. On Oct. 9 at 07:45 UTC (3:45 a.m. EDT), ...

Discovery of new subatomic particle sheds light on fundamental force of nature

2014-10-09

The discovery of a new particle will "transform our understanding" of the fundamental force of nature that binds the nuclei of atoms, researchers argue. Led by scientists from the University of Warwick, the discovery of the new particle will help provide greater understanding of the strong interaction, the fundamental force of nature found within the protons of an atom's nucleus. Named Ds3*(2860)ˉ, the particle, a new type of meson, was discovered by analysing data collected with the LHCb detector at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) . The new particle ...

Satellite movie shows Hurricane Simon's remnants moving through US

2014-10-09

VIDEO: This animation from NOAA's GOES-East satellite over Oct. 6 through Oct. 9 shows Hurricane Simon's landfall and movement into the US Southwest. Click here for more information. NOAA's GOES-East satellite has captured visible and infrared images of Hurricane Simon since birth, and a new animation of the data created by NASA shows Simon's landfall in Mexico and movement into the U.S. Southwest. The remnants are expected to move into the U.S. central Plains and Midwest ...

Eleanor Roosevelt, a radio pioneer, perceived as both 'ordinary' and 'expert'

2014-10-09

Following her husband Franklin D. Roosevelt's death in April 1945, Eleanor Roosevelt was freed from the constraints of the White House and eagerly expanded her career. She used radio to communicate on a wide variety of issues and became a radio pioneer, broadcasting from the 1920s, starting with her own radio show in 1932. She spoke on US domestic radio, the BBC, Voice of America, on French radio (in French) and Italian radio (in Italian). She was also interviewed in Spanish and German. In 1948 she hosted a twice weekly radio program with her daughter Anna on ABC. This ...

'Data smashing' could unshackle automated discovery

2014-10-09

ITHACA, N.Y. – A little known secret in data mining is that simply feeding raw data into a data analysis algorithm is unlikely to produce meaningful results, say the authors of a new Cornell University study. From recognizing speech to identifying unusual stars, new discoveries often begin with comparison of data streams to find connections and spot outliers. But most data comparison algorithms today have one major weakness – somewhere, they rely on a human expert to specify what aspects of the data are relevant for comparison, and what aspects aren't. But ...

Unstoppable magnetoresistance

2014-10-09

Mazhar Ali, a fifth-year graduate student in the laboratory of Bob Cava, the Russell Wellman Moore Professor of Chemistry at Princeton University, has spent his academic career discovering new superconductors, materials coveted for their ability to let electrons flow without resistance. While testing his latest candidate, the semimetal tungsten ditelluride (WTe2), he noticed a peculiar result. Ali applied a magnetic field to a sample of WTe2, one way to kill superconductivity if present, and saw that its resistance doubled. Intrigued, Ali worked with Jun Xiong, a student ...

College athletes in contact sports more likely to carry MRSA, study finds

2014-10-09

PHILADELPHIA – Even if they don't show signs of infection, college athletes who play football, soccer and other contact sports are more likely to carry the superbug methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), suggests a study on MRSA and athletes, which is being presented at IDWeek 2014™. This puts them at higher risk for infection and increases the likelihood of spreading the bug, which can cause serious and even fatal infections. The study is the first to observe college athletes who are not part of a larger MRSA outbreak. Contact sport athletes were more ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Sleep loss linked to higher atrial fibrillation risk in working-age adults

Visible light-driven deracemization of α-aryl ketones synergistically catalyzed by thiophenols and chiral phosphoric acid

Babies with an increased likelihood of autism may struggle to settle into deep, restorative sleep, according to a new study from the University of East Anglia.