Patent ID: 7393996

Claim:
A method for producing a tomato plant having reduced polygalacturonase enzyme activity compared to wild type tomato plants comprising the steps of: a) obtaining plant material from a parent tomato plant; b) inducing at least one mutation in at least one copy of a polygalacturonase gene of the plant material by treating the plant material with a mutagen to create mutagenized plant material wherein the polygalacturonase gene is expressed in fruit; c) culturing the mutagenized plant material to produce progeny tomato plants; d) analyzing the progeny tomato plants to detect a mutation in at least one copy of the polygalacturonase gene of SEQ ID NO:1, wherein said mutation results in a change in amino acid 178 of SEQ ID NO: 2; and e) selecting progeny tomato plants that have a mutation in at least one copy of the polygalacturonase gene of SEQ ID NO: 1 and reduced polygalacturonase enzyme activity compared to the parent tomato plant, wherein said mutation results in a change in amino acid 178 of SEQ ID NO: 2.