The postharvest tomato fruit quality of long shelf-life Mediterranean landraces is substantially influenced by irrigation regimes

• The alc mutation does not predict shelf-life variation in Ramellet tomato.
• Water excess during cultivation can inhibit the LSL phenotype in Ramellet.
• Water stress may enhance postharvest fruit integrity in LSL tomato landraces.
• Ramellet fruit attributes may be key in future shelf-life improvement.

Postharvest shelf-life is a critical trait for fleshy fruit and so studies of genotypes with long shelf-life (LSL) phenotypes are of great potential importance, since they can lead to strategies for crop improvement. Examples of such a genotype are the Delayed Fruit Deterioration (DFD) tomato, and most accessions of the “Tomàtiga de Ramellet” (TdR) Mediterranean landrace group, some of which have a particularly dramatic LSL phenotype and remain palatable for many months after reaching a fully ripe stage. The TdR accessions collectively show a wide variation in shelf-life, although, the basis of this variation is not known. Moreover, little has been reported regarding the relationship between cultivation conditions, fruit shelf-life and specific genetic loci. Here we show that the LSL trait in those landraces is both partially associated with a defined genetic component, in the form of the alcobaça (alc) mutation, and is profoundly affected by the irrigation regime during cultivation.