Tomato fruit having increased firmness

A Solanum lycopersicum tomato fruit with significantly increased fruit firmness at the harvesting stage comprising at least one genetic element in the cultivated Solanum lycopersicum tomato plant producing said tomato fruit, wherein said firmness is measured on the inner pericarp and is from between 1.2 to 2.0 times greater than that of fruit from a control Solanum lycopersicum tomato plant which does not have the said at least one genetic element, wherein said genetic element is identical to a genetic element of Solanum lycopersicum QTL-NIL 301 deposited with NCIMB under accession number 41662, and wherein the said genetic element of QTL-NIL 301 is linked to at least one DNA marker in the cultivated Solanum lycopersicum tomato plant, said at least one DNA marker selected from:

• a) NT3853, which can be detected by a forward primer of SEQ ID NO:
• 1 and a reverse primer of SEQ ID NO:
• 2;
• b) NT3907, which can be detected by a forward primer of SEQ ID NO:
• 3 and a reverse primer of SEQ ID NO:
• 4;
• c) TG14, which can be detected by a forward primer of SEQ ID NO:
• 5 and a reverse primer of SEQ ID NO:
• 6;
• d) HOX7A, which can be detected by a forward primer of SEQ ID NO:
• 7 and a reverse primer of SEQ ID NO:
• 8;
• e) CT277, which can be detected by a forward primer of SEQ ID NO:
• 9 and a reverse primer of SEQ ID NO:
• 10;
• f) Lm0127, which can be detected by a forward primer of SEQ ID NO:
• 11 and a reverse primer of SEQ ID NO:
• 12;
• g) Lm1650, which can be detected by a forward primer of SEQ ID NO:
• 13 and a reverse primer of SEQ ID NO:
• 14;
• h) LE5100, which can be detected by a forward primer of SEQ ID NO:
• 15 and a reverse primer of SEQ ID NO:
• 16;
• i) LE5200, which can be detected by a forward primer of SEQ ID NO:
• 17 and a reverse primer of SEQ ID NO:18;
• j) HB2600, which can be detected by a forward primer of SEQ ID NO:
• 19 and a reverse primer of SEQ ID NO:
• 20;
• and
• k) TG353, which can be detected by a forward primer of SEQ ID NO:
• 21 and a reverse primer of SEQ ID NO:
• 22.