The near-isogenic line containing the Sletr1-2 locus exhibited longer postharvest fruit shelf-life under the genetic background of commercial tomato

Tomato with prolonged fruit shelf life and improved postharvest quality would be an interesting commodity for breeders and consumers. A weak ethylene receptor mutant of experimental tomato, Sletr1-2, exhibits extended fruit shelf life without any undesirable pleiotropic effects. In this study, we elucidate the impact of Sletr1-2 mutation on the plant growth and fruit quality of the near-isogenic line containing the Sletr1-2 locus (NIL-Sletr1-2) under the genetic background of commercial tomatoes. The heterozygote line of BC3F1 and homozygote line of BC3F1, NIL-Sletr1-2 were generated by crossing the original Sletr1-2 mutant with commercial tomato cultivar ‘Intan’ and backcrossed three times. The plant growth and fruit quality were evaluated to identify the impact of Sletr1-2 mutation on NIL-Sletr1-2. The results showed that NIL-Sletr1-2 resulted in a longer fruit shelf life compared to BC2F1 and also ‘Intan’ while they have a smaller fruit size compared to BC3F1 and also resulted in orange-color fruit. These results indicate that Sletr1-2 mutation has favorable impacts on the postharvest quality of NIL-Sletr1-2 tomato fruit, resulting in improving fruit shelf-life, but still producing a smaller fruit size.