Abstract: Carotenoids， a group of high oxidation of fat\|soluble substances in photosynthetic tissues， are known to be abundance in tomato. Tomato is one of the important vegetables all over the world， including China. Research on genes involved in their biosynthesis can provide further information regarding the molecular mechanism in divergent tissues. In this study， identification and expression analysis of carotenoid biosynthesis genes in tomato were performed by bioinformatics methods based on tomato whole genome sequencing information. Results showed that a total of 47 carotenoid biosynthesis genes were identified， which were distributed unevenly on all these chromosomes， other than chromosome 9. Identification， genomic organization and phylogenetic analysis would help revealing the potential mechanisms responsible for the evolution of genes within and among species. RNA\|Seq analysis showed that these genes were involved in different tissues of the cultivated tomato， including root， stem， leaf， flower and fruit， suggesting an important role in vegetative and reproductive growth in tomato.

Key words: tomato, carotenoids, gene expression