Genetic mechanisms underlying

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) belongs to the nightshade family Solanaceae. The extremely diverse and large Solanaceae family is believed to consist of 96 genera and over 2800 species distributed in three subfamilies, Solanoideae (to which Solanum belongs), Cestroideae, and Solanineae (Knapp et al., 2004). Solanaceae is one of the most economically important families of angiosperms and contains many of the commonly cultivated plants, including potato, tomato, pepper, eggplant, petunia, and tobacco. This family is the most variable of all crop species in terms of agricultural utility, the 3rd economically most important crop family, exceeded only by grasses and legumes, and the most valuable in terms of vegetable crops (van der Hoeven et al., 2002).