Tomato is one of the most widely produced and consumed vegetable crops worldwide. Plant breeders have usually focused on improvement of horticulturally important traits such as yield, fruit size, shape and colour. With increased attention on human health, however, plant breeders also consider the improvement of health-related traits of fruits and vegetables such as antioxidant characters. In the present study, genes controlling both health-related and horticulturally important traits were mapped in the tomato genome using 152 Lycopersicon hirsutum BC2F2 individuals. For this aim, all plants were phenotypically and genotypically characterised and a total of 75 QTLs were identified for all traits. Of the 75 QTLs, 28 were identified for 5 antioxidant traits including total water soluble antioxidant capacity, vitamin C, total phenolics, total flavonoids, and lycopene contents, and 47 QTLs were identified for 8 agronomic traits including fruit weight, external and internal fruit colour, fruit firmness, fruit shape, stem scar size, locule number, and wall thickness. Markers linked with these QTLs can be used in marker assisted selection (MAS) for improvement of elite tomato lines.

Tomato is one of the most widely produced and consumed vegetable crops worldwide. Plant breeders have usually focused on improvement of horticulturally important traits such as yield, fruit size, shape and colour. With increased attention on human health, however, plant breeders also consider the improvement of health-related traits of fruits and vegetables such as antioxidant characters. In the present study, genes controlling both health-related and horticulturally important traits were mapped in the tomato genome using 152 Lycopersicon hirsutum BC2F2 individuals. For this aim, all plants were phenotypically and genotypically characterised and a total of 75 QTLs were identified for all traits. Of the 75 QTLs, 28 were identified for 5 antioxidant traits including total water soluble antioxidant capacity, vitamin C, total phenolics, total flavonoids, and lycopene contents, and 47 QTLs were identified for 8 agronomic traits including fruit weight, external and internal fruit colour, fruit firmness, fruit shape, stem scar size, locule number, and wall thickness. Markers linked with these QTLs can be used in marker assisted selection (MAS) for improvement of elite tomato lines.