Quote:
Originally Posted by Tracydr
Is there any chance that black tomatoes were originally a mutation? Could that mutation have occurred more than once, causing the origin of black tomatoes to be more than one country? Unlikely, but just a thought.
It does seem that more than a few black tomatoes originate from the Eastern European countries, and with the number if immigrants that came from there to the US in the late 1800s to Eary 1900s it seems to make sense that somebody simply brought seeds with them, bringing the black tomatoes to the US, from which the black gene was added to the US tomato gene pool.
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For sure the gf alleles could have been a mutation, for almost all new varieties arise either by an initial X pollination and dehybridization or a mutation, either a seed DNA mutation or one in a plant cell, called a somatic mutation.
From origin analysis, mainly from histories given for specific varieties it appears that the gold/red bicolors originated in Germany or near by and were brought the US via immigrants for that area.
We have no information as to what was grown in the Eastern European countries in the mid 1800's to the late 1800s when so many immigrants did come to the US. All we know as to possible origins was the analysis of gf alles in the link from GW that I provided above.