Exploration of three Solanum species for improvement of antioxidant traits in tomato

Abstract

Wild tomato species have been widely used for improvement of tomato disease resistance but have not been extensively explored for health-related traits. In this work, three interspecific populations derived from backcrosses between cultivated tomato and Solanum pimpinellifolium (LA1589), S. habrochaites (LA1223), and S. peruvianum (LA2172) were analyzed for water-soluble antioxidant activity, phenolic content, vitamin C content, and basic agronomic traits including fruit weight, shape, and color. The wild species accessions significantly exceeded S. lycopersicum for all three antioxidant traits with only one exception: vitamin C content in S. habrochaites LA1223. Several populations and traits showed transgressive segregation indicating that the backcross populations contained individuals with allele combinations that allowed antioxidant activity/content to exceed that of both parents. The S. habrochaites LA1223 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. Moreover, the S. habrochaites population contained individuals that had nearly 2-fold more water-soluble antioxidant activity and phenolic content than cultivated tomato. The S. peruvianum LA2172 population was 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.