The tomato genome has been decoded! Plant geneticists from 14 different countries spent the last nine years mapping the genetic makeup of the tomato, and have discovered that the tomato contains 31,760 genes - that's 7,000 more genes than a human being!
The tomato's genome is actually closer to that of a potato. (The two plants share 92 percent of their DNA.) Why map the tomato genome at all? Scientists hope to use the information to breed better tomatoes, and the tomato genome "is both of intrinsic interest and a key to understanding the very versatile family of plants to which it belongs," which includes the potato, the tobacco plant, the pepper, the eggplant and deadly nightshade. The full results of the study are published in Nature.
Read More: More Genes Than Humans: The Tomato Decoded
Related: What are Dry-Farmed Tomatoes?
(Image: Michael Durand)
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So does rice and onions. It's not that unusual or interesting if you understand that # of genes doesn't have anything to do with how 'advanced' an organism is.
The Solanaceae is a very interesting family! A lot of our food crops from this family were originally cultivated in Latin America, too (tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, tomatillos...). I could be wrong, but don't plants generally have more genes than we do since they can hybridize? I thought I remember hearing that somewhere.
thought=think
@NY2MIDMO: Thank you for pointing this out before I had to. I'm getting really sick of articles like this. "7,000 more genes than a human being!" means NOTHING of substance!
@PLEIOVN
Crop plants tend to have very convoluted genomes because we've force-crossed them so many times. I know strawberries can have six sets of chromosomes (while humans have two). That's often why crop plants have more genes than humans - they have a lot more space FOR genes.