A great national project will participate where several researchers, universities and private companies will attempt to generate more varieties of tomato with high taste and odor and are replete with claims such as sugars, organic acids and vitamin C.

In this project called 'caliton 2010-2015' and involving organizations such as the Institute of Molecular Biology and plant cell, the most Experimental Station, the University of Almería (UAL) and Zeta Seeds company account with a funding of EUR 2.5 million.

So far, Spanish research on tomato, product that only in 2009 moved 814 million euros, had focused more on production than in the own consumer.

This project, promoted by the genome Foundation Spain, dependent of the Ministry of science and innovation, has already achieved tomatoes more large, showy, less perishable and more resistant, but now seeks to enhance the theme of the flavor, which "is more difficult to achieve"", since the challenge involves many genes and complicated technique," said Emilia Gómez, Director of the project.

The purpose of this macro is to produce improved varieties of tomatoes as the cherry or pear tomatoes.

One of the first steps undertaken within the framework of this investigation, which has already lasted a year, has been the identifying regions of the genome of the tomato which affect characteristics, through some bookmarks that allow follow them easily and quickly and thusguide the process of improvement to its incorporation to the named varieties or new ones.

This also works Antonio Granell, scientific coordinator of the project that explains that the features that we want to encourage in the same "not depend on a gene". He recalled, in the same way, that the flavour of this fruit is linked to the content of sugars and acids and the relationship among them, so you should investigate is this genome.

This project includes very powerful technology, as mentioned by Granell, for the identification of genetic changes in each of the descendants of crosses obtained during the program. The scientist also indicated that the project has been serving the same 'genotyping' platform used in biomedicine for the human genome.

It has transpired that so far have already made several positive crossings and have been selected which incorporate the markers of interest related to the quality of the tomato. The families obtained at these crossings evaluates its phenotypic and genotypic composition, as well as their agronomic behaviour to select the interesting. According to Antonio Granell, these families of plants will be subject to various stages of crossing and selection to the flavor and aroma expected.