Tom,
NC 1C is a cherry tomato line I released several years ago as the parent of the F1 hybrid cherry tomato 'Mountain Belle' and has no parentage coming from 'Santa'. I developed and released three grape tomato lines NC 1,2, and 3 grape that do include 'Santa' in their pedigree but also have genetic material coming from other sources and are distinct in plant and fruit traits from 'Santa' and the lines developed from just selfing 'Santa'. The fact that numerous people have saved seed from 'Santa' and found the resultant lines to be so similar as they are to 'Santa' indicates that there is little genetic diversity in the parents of 'Santa'. The main difference seems to be that one parent of 'Santa' is determinate and the other is indeterminate. Seed company breeders routinely self popular hybrids to develop inbred lines and then cross them to come up with a new hybrid that they hope is as good or maybe superior to the previous hybrid from which it was derived. They do this because they are under pressure to develop new hybrids very quickly, which can compete for seed sales with existing hybrids from other companies. Seed companies are generally very tight lipped about the source of genetic material in the new hybrids they develop, but in instances where they apply for patents or PVP certificates and have to provide a complete pedigree, information comes out regarding how much use they are actually making of lines and varieties developed by others. I do not support plant patents that attempt to restrict other breeders use of genetic material in developing new hybrids, especially not when the patented line or variety is derived completely from the background of something some one else has developed.
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