Identifying the loci responsible for natural variation in fruit size and shape in tomato

Fruit size and shape are two major factors determining yield, quality and c onsumer acceptability for many crops. Like most traits important to agricul ture, both are quantitatively inherited. Despite their economic importance none of the genes controlling either of these traits have been cloned, and little is known about the control of the size and shape of domesticated fru it. Tomato represents a model fruit-bearing domesticated species characteri zed by a wide morphological diversity of fruits. The many genetic and genom ic tools available for this crop can be used to unraveal the molecular base s of the developmental stages which presumably influence fruit architecture , size and shape. The goal of this review is to summarize data from the tom ato QTL studies conducted over the past 15 years, which together allow the identification of the major QTLs responsible for fruit domestication in tom ato. These results provide the starting point for the isolation of the gene s involved in fruit-size/shape determination in tomato and potentially othe r fruit-bearing plants.