ABSTRACT
Tomato genetic engineering primarily relies not only on genome sequence information but also requires comprehensive understanding of the function of tomato genes. In a ‘functional genomics’ approach, the targets of research are the key molecules that determine the biological activity of cells: transcripts, proteins and metabolites. Transcripts represent the fi rst step of gene expression. However, their presence and quantity in a cell is not necessarily linearly correlated with those of proteins or metabolites (Gibon et al. 2004). Thus, transcript profi ling is not suffi cient to understand the plasticity of phenotype, which is undoubtedly driven by altered levels of proteins and metabolites (Weckwerth 2008). This leads us to the understanding that proteomics and metabolomics are valuable components of functional genomics. The profi le of proteins and metabolites can be key determinants of productivity and quality of tomato fruit.
