Quote:
Originally Posted by nicollas
Do you know any commercial hybrid that is (presumably) an interspecific cross ? I've heard suppositions about Sungold but are there any other ?
thanks
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I believe that many of the supersweet cherry tomatoes such as Supersweet 100 Hybrid have S. pimpinellifolium as one of the parents. Apparently there is some sort of synergism between the genes for sugar production in the two species so that the F1 is sweeter than either parent. I've made some crosses with pimpinellifolium and seen that this is often (but not always) the case. One of my main projects is to try to stabilize the high sugar content in the F2, F3, etc. generations. I'm finding that it isn't easy but I haven't given up yet.
Responding to one of Carolyn's comments, I have also seen red-fruited plants show up in the F2 and later generations of Sungold. This means that one of the parents is a red tomato and the other is an orange tomato with the dominant B gene for orange color. See the link below from Frogsleap Farm for information on the genetics of tomato color.
http://frogsleapfarm.blogspot.com/20...-color-in.html
The F2 and later generations of Sungold tend to be about the same size as Sungold, which makes me think it isn't a cross with pimpinellifolium, since you would expect a wider range of sizes if that were the case. However, there is definitely something exotic in its ancestry, and I wish I knew what it was.
Fred
Comment added later: On rereading the Frogsleap link, Del is another dominant gene for orange color. Del is partially dominant and B is more fully dominant. I'm not sure which of the two better fits the behavior of Sungold F2 and later generations. Some of the offspring are more yellowish than Sungold F1, which might come from being homozygous for Del.