Mw. D. (Dóra) Szinay: The development of FISH tools for genetic, phylogenetic and breeding studies in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum)

This thesis describes fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technologies to support genome projects, breeding and evolutionary analysis on tomato (Solanum lycopersicum). FISH is a method, which is used to investigate specific DNA sequences on chromosomes. Tomato genome is 980 Mb (12 chromosomes) and 30 % are single copy sequences, which are found in the less condensed chromosome regions. These were therefore focus of the International Solanaceae Genome Sequencing Project. In Chapter 2 I describe a five-color high-resolution FISH approach revealing interesting differences between the FISH and the genetic maps. In Chapter 3 the other 70 % of tomato was analyzed combining FISH with bioinformatics on chromosome 7. This repetitive part organized either as tandem or dispersed stretches on the chromosome. In Chapter 4, chromosome 6 of tomato and potato (Solanum tuberosum) was compared and reversal were found o the short arm. Based on this idea Chapter 5 shows an evolutionary study using chromosomal rearrangements within relatives of tomato and potato.