Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum, formerly Lycopersicon esculentum) belongs to the family of Solanaceae (nightshade) which includes many agriculturally important crops (potato, tobacco, pepper, egg-plant) as well as ornamental plants and medicinals (Capsicum, Atropa belladonna).
The tomato genome (950 Mb, ~250 Mb euchromatin) is one of the smallest diploid genomes among the Solanaceae species for which homozygous inbred lines are available. The copy of sequence data for tomato is available (Downloaded from ftp://ftp.solgenomics.net/tomato_genome/wgs/assembly/build_2.40/). The detailed molecular knowlegde will allow comparative genomics among Solanaceae species and the improvement of desired traits by refinded molecular breeding strategies. Solanaceae show very high conservation among each other and thus, the tomato genome will serve as a 'blue print' for other Solanaceae.
Microsatellites, also known as Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) or short tandem repeats (STRs), are repeating sequences of specific DNA which contains mono-, di-, tri-, or tetra-, penta- or hexa- tandem repeats such as (A)n, (CA)n, (GA)n, (GTA)n, (ATT)n, (GATA)n, (ATTTT)n, (ACGTCG)n. Genomes are scattered with these repeats. Repeats of longer units form minisatellites or satellite DNA. With the discovery of tandem iterations of simple sequence motifs, the term microsatellites was further coined.
