Find in Library

The control of flowering time is a major contributing factor to the improvement of crop yield by optimizing plant growth in a crop cycle. Genetic variants that determine flowering time can provide insights into optimizing flowering time for higher yields and other beneficial traits in tomato crops. Here, we examined a collection of flowering time variants to assess their effects on biomass and total tomato yields. Five <i>late flowering</i> (<i>lf</i>), thirteen <i>large plant</i> (<i>lp</i>), and seven <i>floral homeotic</i> (<i>fh</i>) mutants were identified as flowering time variants that could be rearranged according to leaf production in the primary shoot meristem (PSM). A flowering time continuum of mutants was translated into a positive continuum of biomass yield with more leaves, branches, and floral organs. The flowering time continuum showed an optimal curve of fruit yield, indicating a certain late flowering time as optimal for fruit yield, with the yield gradually decreasing in both directions with earlier or later flowering times. We isolated <i>lf1</i>, <i>lf10</i>, <i>lp22,</i> and <i>fh13</i> as high-yielding genotypes with optimal flowering time, showing a new balance between the vegetative and flowering phases of tomato. Additionally, <i>lp8, fh8</i>, and <i>fh15</i> produced extremely high biomass in leaves, axillary shoots, and floral organs due to late flowering in shoot apices with additional production of floral organs and lateral shoot. Our new late-flowering variants provide new genetic resources that can be used to optimize crop yield by fine-tuning flowering time, and future molecular studies could be conducted by revisiting our yield model.