Scientists have sequenced the entire genome of the tomato in an international project that promises enhanced versions of the fruit.

The study, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, has been conducted since 2004 by more than 300 scientists from 14 countries including a Korean team that mapped out one of the 12 chromosomes.

“We have identified 35,000 genes in the tomato genome. This will be of enormous benefit to both researchers and breeders,” Choi Do-il of Seoul National University said.

The 12 chromosomes of the tomato have been allocated to 10 international teams.

It is the part of International Solanaceae Genomics Project aiming to decode the genomic information of the plant classification that includes the potato, eggplant and pepper.

All the information of sequencing of the tomato genome will be available on the Sol Genomics Network website http://solgenomics.net/tomato.

By Oh Kyu-wook (596story@heraldcorp.com)