Leaf shape is a predictor of fruit quality and cultivar performance in tomato.

The goal of this project was to understand the relative contribution of leaf shape to fruit quality in tomato. We used eighteen heirloom cultivars and sequenced nine of these to obtain insight into the breeding history and selection of the Potato Leaf morph in these lines. We found that improved fruit quality was strongly associated with rounder leaf shape, such as that found in Potato Leaf morph cultivars, and this leaf trait was selected for from many different breeding events.