Fruit color and post-harvest shelf life in tomato affected by the ogc, norA, and rin alleles

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the effects of the mutant alleles alcobaça (nor^A), ripening inhibitor (rin), and old gold crimson (og^c), in heterozygosity or homozygosity, on the expression of color and on the postharvest quality of fruit of experimental tomato hybrids. Fourteen hybrids with contrasting genotypic constitutions in the nor^A, rin, and og^c loci were evaluated in a randomized complete block design with four replicates. The following fruit postharvest quality traits were evaluated: firmness in the breaker stage, color, and soluble solids content. The rin⁺/rin and nor⁺/nor^A genotypes increased firmness of tomato fruit at harvest (breaker stage). The rin⁺/rin genotypes displayed the worst internal fruit color. There was a positive effect of og^c+/og^c in improving the internal color of rin⁺/rin and nor⁺/nor^A fruit, making the color similar to that of the normal genotypes. The combination of the og^c/og^c rin⁺/rin nor⁺/nor^A genes is effective to improve tomato fruit firmness, besides maintaining or improving internal color.