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Fusion_power · December 5, 2012

Andrey, reading between the lines, 1 plant (cucumber?) on 3 hectares was cold tolerant. That would indicate 1 single plant out of about 20,000 was able to survive a severe freeze.

I found a small number of plants from one single variety of tomato were cold tolerant because they were exposed to 22 degrees (-5C) overnight in 2007. I also lost about 5000 tomato and pepper plants that night though there were several peppers that showed some tolerance.

I have reason to suspect that our domestic tomato will show very little cold tolerance. This should explain my interest in the S. Lycopersicoides introgression lines. S. Lycopersicoides happens to be adapted to tropical mountain climates at altitudes up to 3600 meters (2 miles) where temperatures routinely drop to the range of 0 to 10 degrees F (-13C to -18C). It seems probable that it would have genetic adaptations specifically for perennial survival at such temperatures. Working with the genetics will be extremely difficult because this species is so genetically distant from tomato. The introgression lines will make it a lot easier for breeding work, but teasing apart the genes involved will take many plant generations of breeding work.

DarJones

December 5, 2012	#48
Fusion_power Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Alabama Posts: 2,250	Andrey, reading between the lines, 1 plant (cucumber?) on 3 hectares was cold tolerant. That would indicate 1 single plant out of about 20,000 was able to survive a severe freeze. I found a small number of plants from one single variety of tomato were cold tolerant because they were exposed to 22 degrees (-5C) overnight in 2007. I also lost about 5000 tomato and pepper plants that night though there were several peppers that showed some tolerance. I have reason to suspect that our domestic tomato will show very little cold tolerance. This should explain my interest in the S. Lycopersicoides introgression lines. S. Lycopersicoides happens to be adapted to tropical mountain climates at altitudes up to 3600 meters (2 miles) where temperatures routinely drop to the range of 0 to 10 degrees F (-13C to -18C). It seems probable that it would have genetic adaptations specifically for perennial survival at such temperatures. Working with the genetics will be extremely difficult because this species is so genetically distant from tomato. The introgression lines will make it a lot easier for breeding work, but teasing apart the genes involved will take many plant generations of breeding work. DarJones Last edited by Fusion_power; December 5, 2012 at 12:47 PM.