Tainan, Taiwan
February 2011

Source: AVRDC Newsletter

In his ongoing effort to develop durable disease resistance in tomatoes, AVRDC tomato breeder Peter Hanson regularly shares germplasm with other researchers in universities,  government agencies, and the private sector around the world who are interested in experimenting with the Center’s tomato lines. Peter’s work involves pyramiding—a breeding technique used to introduce multiple genes into a plant, each of which imparts resistance to a specific pest or disease. Because a pest must overcome all of the resistance genes simultaneously to survive, it is more likely the vegetable line or variety will retain its resistance over a longer period—perhaps for several decades. AVRDC breeders have developed open pollinated tomato lines with various combinations of Ty-1, Ty-2, and Ty-3, three genes drawn from wild tomatoes Solanum habrochaites, S. chilense, and S. peruvianum. Lines carrying these multiple  genes have demonstrated resistance to several whitefly-transmitted begomoviruses, a cause of tomato yellow leaf curl virus disease.

Peter sent Ty-2 lines to Kevin Crosby, a plant breeder at Texas A&M University. Kevin used the Ty-2 germplasm to develop a new tomato variety that has kept a canning company open for business in Texas. Kevin recently wrote:

The original Ty-2 lines you sent allowed us to introduce acceptable resistance into an old processor line grown by the last large tomato cannery in south Texas. They were stuck on the old,  ultradeterminate, once-over harvest type, but had no defense against Tomato yellow leaf curl virus. The owner told me that without our help they would have been forced out of tomato canning in Texas. Now all of the store-brand canned tomatoes in our largest grocery chain (HEB) are from the line we developed for him. I told him about your contribution to the effort by way of Ty-2 and he was amazed that breeders were collaborating half way around the world. I really appreciate your generosity in providing materials.

Website: https://avrdc.org/

Published: February 25, 2011