EVALUATION OF INBRED LINES FROM A TOMATO INTERSPECIFIC CROSS

Abstract

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the main vegetables grown in México and around the world; however, this species has reduced genetic variation due to its domestication and inbreeding. As a consequence tomato breeders use wild germplasm from tomato relatives in search ing allelic variants for fruit quality and resistance to adverse biotic and abiotic factors. This work tried to increase the genetic background of cultivated tomato, to generate germplasm for tomato breeding in México, and to assess the horticultural potential of 225 recombinant S₃ lines derived from an interspecific cross between S. lycopersicum and S. pinpinellifolium. The 225 lines were evaluated under greenhouse and hydroponics conditions. Large variation was found among lines for yield and yield components, as well as for fruit quality. For example, average fruit weight ranged from 1 g to 36 g; total soluble solids ranged from 3.4 to 10.2 °Brix; fruit yield ranged from 16 to 1330 g per plant; and the number of fruits per cluster ranged from 8 to 115. Therefore the lines generated in this work represent a new source of germplasm for tomato breeding programs in México. Traits that showed higher correlation with yield were the variable averages of fruit weight, fruit length, fruit diameter, and total number of fruit per plant. Yield components had relatively high values of broad sense heritability, greater than 0.60, while for total soluble solids it was 0.50.