Exploring ddRAD sequencing data of tomato genotypes evaluated for the heat stress tolerance

Climate change is a major concern for agricultural crops, and the selection of tolerant genotypes in response to abi- otic stresses represents an important breeding strategy to re- duce yield losses. In addition, the continuous development of new and more accurate high-throughput technologies for the analysis of DNA sequences is the key to improve biolog- ical understanding and application of biological knowledge. In the present work, 27 tomato genotypes already evaluated for their response under high temperature conditions were sequenced by using the ddRAD sequencing technology. The main goal was to provide genomic data useful for identify- ing candidate genes and variants to cope with current cli- mate changes. Total genomic DNA was extracted from leaves and sequenced on the HiSeq2500 Illumina instrument. Raw reads of the dataset were processed using different bioinfor- matics tools to generate a Variant Calling Format (VCF) file. The availability of resources reporting polymorphisms among genomes of different genotypes provides a useful basis for studying tomato tolerance to current climate changes and can be used by researchers and breeders to investigate the molecular response mechanisms and develop new breeding programs, also aided by Marked Assisted Selection (MAS).