*2.1. Identification of MADS-Box Genes in Tomato*

To extensively identify tomato MADS-box genes, a set of 131 tomato MADS-box genes that are highly homologous to the MADS-box proteins reported in other plants was recovered using BLAST searches against the NCBI and SGN databases. Redundant sequences were removed. Since 35 tomato MADS-box genes have been officially named, the newly identified 96 tomato MADS-box genes were designated as *SlMADS2*–*SlMADS98* (Table 1). Additionally, the molecular characteristics of the 131 MADS-box genes in tomato were analyzed. The names of the tomato MADS-box genes, the locus/gene names of SGN, the length of amino acid sequence, the molecular weight, and the isoelectric point are shown in Table 1. The statistical results showed that the amino acid sequence length of the 131 predicted tomato MADS-box proteins varied from 54 (*SlMBP19*) to 417 (*SlMADS52*), the relative molecular mass ranged from 6224.26 Da (*SlMBP19*) to 47275.1 Da (*SlMADS52*), and the isoelectric point (pI) varied from 4.41 (*SlMADS70*) to 11.03 (*SlMADS77* and *SlMADS80*). The homologous genes of the tomato MADS-box family genes in Arabidopsis and the references for the study of the functions in homologous genes are shown in Table S1. In addition, the functional reports of several genes that have been studied previously were listed.

**Table 1.** Overview of MADS-box genes identified in tomato. List of predicted genes and related information include gene name, gene locus, molecular details, classification of two types according to the phylogenetic analysis shown in Figure S1, homologs in Arabidopsis, as well as the reference of the gene function investigation. pI, isoelectric point; MW, molecular weight.



**Table 1.** *Cont.*


**Table 1.** *Cont.*
