Crop breeding for mechanized harvesting has driven modern agriculture. In tomato, machine harvesting for industrial processing varieties became the norm in the 1970s. However, fresh-market varieties whose fruits are suitable for mechanical harvesting are difficult to breed because of associated reduction in flavour and nutritional qualities. Here we report the cloning and functional characterization of fs8.1, which controls the elongated fruit shape and crush resistance of machine-harvestable processing tomatoes. FS8.1 encodes a non-canonical GT-2 factor that activates the expression of cell-cycle inhibitor genes through the formation of a transcriptional module with the canonical GT-2 factor SlGT-16. The fs8.1 mutation results in a lower inhibitory effect on the cell proliferation of the ovary wall, leading to elongated fruits with enhanced compression resistance. Our study provides a potential route for introducing the beneficial allele into fresh-market tomatoes without reducing quality, thereby facilitating mechanical harvesting.

机械化收获作物育种推动了现代农业。在番茄方面，工业加工品种的机器收获在 20 世纪 70 年代已成为常态。然而，果实适合机械采收的新鲜市场品种由于风味和营养品质的降低而难以培育。在这里，我们报告了fs8.1的克隆和功能表征，它控制机器可收获加工番茄的拉长果实形状和抗压碎性。 FS8.1编码非经典 GT-2 因子，该因子通过与经典 GT-2 因子 SlGT-16 形成转录模块来激活细胞周期抑制基因的表达。 fs8.1突变导致对子房壁细胞增殖的抑制作用降低，导致果实拉长，抗压能力增强。我们的研究提供了一种将有益等位基因引入新鲜市场番茄而不降低质量的潜在途径，从而促进机械收获。