Hadas, R., Department of Vegetables, Institute of Field and Garden Crops, Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, P.O. Box 6, Bet Dagan, 50250, Israel
Schaffer, A., Department of Vegetables, Institute of Field and Garden Crops, Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, P.O. Box 6, Bet Dagan, 50250, Israel
Miron, D., Department of Vegetables, Institute of Field and Garden Crops, Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, P.O. Box 6, Bet Dagan, 50250, Israel
Fogelman, M., Department of Vegetables, Institute of Field and Garden Crops, Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, P.O. Box 6, Bet Dagan, 50250, Israel
Granot, D., Department of Field Crops and Natural Resources, Institute of Field and Garden Crops, Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, P.O. Box 6, Bet Dagan, 50250, Israel

The green-fruited tomato species, Lycopersicon hirsutum, unlike the domesticated red-fruited species, L. esculentum, accumulates sucrose during the final stages of fruit development, concomitant with the loss of soluble acid invertase activity. In order to study the genetic linkage of sucrose accumulation to the invertase gene, part of the invertase gene from L. hirsutum was cloned, sequenced and the sequence compared with the invertase sequence of the red-fruited L. esculentum. Several base changes were found in the coding region of the two invertase genes. Based on these base -pair differences, we developed a species-specific PCR assay capable of determining, in a single PCR reaction, the origin of the invertase gene in segregating seedlings of an interspecific cross. Our results indicate that the invertase gene is genetically linked to sucrose accumulation in the green-fruited L. hirsutum. © 1995 Springer-Verlag.