Characterization of the Fruit Quality and Yield of a Genome-Edited High-GABA Tomato Cultivar (Solanum lycopersicum) Cultivated under Salt Stress Conditions

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) has health benefits for humans and relates to environmental stress tolerance for plants. Cultivating fruit under salt stress conditions is a useful strategy for improving fruit quality, in terms of sugar content. In this study, we investigated the salt stress response of the high-GABA tomato created by the CRISPR technology. We conducted a comparative experiment with the original and high-GABA tomato cultivars under normal and salt stress conditions and investigated the fruit quality and yield and contents of GABA, glutamate, sugar, and carotenoids. GABA content was further increased in the high-GABA tomato cultivar under salt stress conditions. In addition, the high-GABA tomato presented an increase in sugar content similar to that of the original cultivar but less reduced fruit weight, fruit number, and yield when cultivated under salt stress conditions. These results suggest that the high-GABA tomato performs better under salt stress conditions than does the original tomato does.