Ethylmethanesulfonate (EMS) mutagenesis of Solanum lycopersicum cv. Micro-Tom for large-scale mutant screens

Sequencing a whole genome, cataloguing full-length cDNAs and ESTs, and construction of a comprehensive mutant population are essential steps in genome projects of individual model species. Tomato is one of the most important model crops to be undertaken for study over the next few decades, and the Solanaceae Genomics Project (SOL) has begun genome projects as international collaborations. The Solanum lycopersicum cultivar Micro-Tom shares several advantages with Arabidopsis, including its small size, short life cycle (approximately 90 days), and growth normally under artificial light. Here we demonstrate an initial attempt to generate a comprehensive mutant population in Micro-Tom. A total of 3,839 M2 families derived from ethylmethanesulfonate (EMS) mutagenesis were visually phenotyped, and putative mutants were classified into 15 primary and 48 secondary categories based on the SOL database, The Genes That Make Tomatoes.