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Attachment: Finding the gene that makes tomatoes pink.xlsx (please download the file, don't use the preview) DOWNLOAD NOG AANPASSEN!
Introduction
Most of the tomato fruits sold in Europe have red ripe fruits (Figure 1A). Fruits with pink pigmentation (Figure 1B) are the most commonly consumed tomatoes in Asia. The red colour of tomato fruits is determined by a combination of two pigments: (i) the carotenoid lycopene, which has a pink colour and an unknown pigment of yellow colour (Figure 1C). The peel of pink tomatoes is lacking the yellow pigment and, therefore fruits looked more pink compared to the red tomatoes (Figure 1A, B). The pink mutation has already been described in 1925 and the underlying mutation was called y (yellow). Old classical genetic studies revealed that the pink colour is determined by a mutation in a single recessive gene on chromosome 1, but for many years the nature of this gene and the biochemical basis for the yellow pigment was unknown. Dutch breeders want to enter the enormous Asian tomato market with their varieties. However, it is absolutely required to have a pink fruit colour in order to be successful. Therefore, they would like to start breeding programs in which they would select for pink fruited tomato cultivars. In principle, this selection can be done by simply screening for fruit colour. However this approach takes a long time because breeders have to wait for a few month till fruit will ripe.
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