10,000 years of crop cultivation by our Neolithic ancestors have played a major role in determining the crops make up our staple diets. Researchers used Illumina sequencing to unravel the history of the Tomato genome to decipher its evolution and ancestors. Tomatoes have been long known to suffer leaf injury in continuous light. Recently researchers have discovered genes responsible for tolerance to continuous light in wild tomato species. Introgressing tolerance to light in hybrid tomatoes could lead to greater yield in tomato fruit production. Researchers studied tomato ripening and identified a dynamic epigenome during development. Sequencing has given us so much insight into the tomato genome. Farmers can use such insight to accurately select for genomic and/or epigenomic traits to produce the desired crop. For more information on applications of Illumina technology in the field of Agrigenomics, please visit us at Illumina: Agrigenomics http://www.illumina.com/applications/agriculture.ilmn Products: HiSeq: http://www.illumina.com/systems/hiseq_2500_1500.ilmn Genome AnalyzerIIx: http://www.illumina.com/sequencing/sequencing_instruments/genome_analyzer_iix.ilmn Illumina GoldenGate Arrays: http://www.illumina.com/applications/agriculture/agrigenomics-products-services/agrigenomics-kits-reagents.ilmn Publication Links: PMID: 25305757 | Lin T., et al. (2014): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25305757 PMID: 25093373 | Velez-Ramirez AI. et al (2014) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25093373 PMID: 23354102 | Zhong S. et al (2013): http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23354102 The Science Mondays (SciMon) series is brought to you by Illumina http://www.illumina.com/ Illumina hosts Swati Kadam, Ph.D., Scientific Liaison, Scientific Affairs and Jacques Retief, Associate Director Scientific Affairs deliver 5 minutes of scientific enlightenment on the latest discoveries.