Specifically, the genome was sequenced from the "Heinz 1706" tomato.

The publication caps years of work by members of the Tomato Genomics Consortium, an international collaboration between Argentina, Belgium, China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, United Kingdom, United States and others.

James Giovannoni, a scientist at the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, located on the campus of Cornell University, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, lead the U.S. tomato sequencing team, which includes researchers at several institutions. The wild tomato (Solanum pimpinellifolium) genome sequence was developed at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Consortium researchers report that tomatoes possess some 35,000 genes arranged on 12 chromosomes. "For any characteristic of the tomato, whether it's taste, natural pest resistance or nutritional content, we've captured virtually all those genes," says Giovannoni.

The sequences of these genes and their arrangement on the chromosomes are described in the Nature article, "The tomato genome sequence provides insights into fleshy fruit evolution," which is information that allows researchers to move at a quicker pace and plant breeders to produce new varieties with specific desired characteristics.