Tomatoville® Gardening Forums - View Single Post - New Genetic Research Shows Low Diversity in Tomatoes

Fusion_power · June 17, 2015

I am growing out 2 groups of F2 seedlings from a cross of S. Lycopersicum X S. Pimpinellifolium with 16 plants per in my garden. I have plants lined up to make more crosses this year using S. Habrochaites as the pollen parent.

Crossing all the known tomato species into one plant would of necessity severely decrease genetic diversity in the tomato clade. The way to increase diversity is to domesticate more of the wild species by bringing desirable genes in through crosses. S. Habrochaites and S. Peruvianum have the most potential for stress tolerance genes and for disease tolerance. S. Pimpinellifolium and S. Galapagense have the most potential in very close relatives to the domestic tomato.

June 17, 2015	#34
Fusion_power Tomatovillian™ Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Alabama Posts: 2,250	I am growing out 2 groups of F2 seedlings from a cross of S. Lycopersicum X S. Pimpinellifolium with 16 plants per in my garden. I have plants lined up to make more crosses this year using S. Habrochaites as the pollen parent. Crossing all the known tomato species into one plant would of necessity severely decrease genetic diversity in the tomato clade. The way to increase diversity is to domesticate more of the wild species by bringing desirable genes in through crosses. S. Habrochaites and S. Peruvianum have the most potential for stress tolerance genes and for disease tolerance. S. Pimpinellifolium and S. Galapagense have the most potential in very close relatives to the domestic tomato.