Book on Tomato Genetics

[Farmette]

With the current inquiries regarding crossbreeding on T'ville and my own curiousity, I was wondering if there is a book that is written for the average person about these things. Or perhaps there is an internet site, etc. that would answer questions about which traits are dominant or recessive.
Thanks
Chris

[frogsleap farm]

There's a lot of basic material on Keith Mueller's site: www.kdcomm.net/~tomato/

[Farmette]

Thanks Frogs...its a good site. Much of it is taught in our high school biology class, but I like how it is specific to tomatoes and it is presented so clearly. I am wondering if there is information on traits beyond leaf type.

[Farmette]

Oops, nevermind...I guess I found more info in the links.

[frogsleap farm]

On his tomato mutations tab, he links to the UC Davis tomato site (Tomato Genetics Resource Center) with a comprehensive list of known genes w/ phenotypes. An allele that starts with a capital letter is dominant, e.g Af = anthocyanin fruit, and starting with a lower case letter means the allele is recessive, e.g. gs=green stripe.

[Farmette]

Yes, the traits are what I was interested in. The dominant/recessive identification I remember from biology along with the punnett squares.
Thanks again for the great info!
Chris

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by Farmette

Thanks Frogs...its a good site. Much of it is taught in our high school biology class, but I like how it is specific to tomatoes and it is presented so clearly. I am wondering if there is information on traits beyond leaf type.

I thought Keith had links to many sites re tomato genetics, and the one to the PGRC, that's the Rick Center at UCDAVIS while it can be complicated is also, shall I say comprehensive.

The reason Keith did the different colored balls illustration, which is what I thinbk you were referring to, was b'c many folks do not understand the comcept of gene segregation, so that's what that was all about and many have found is very useful in determining how many generations it takes to get a hybrid to the homozygous state. Keith is very knowledgeable about tomato genetics and got his degree with Dr. Randy Gardner at NCSU, the person who bred all the Mountain series of varieties; he's now retired but is still working on projects.

And Keith himself has bred several varieties you might have seen referenced here and elsewhere, such as Purple Haze F1 and then the OP's Gary 'O Sena, Liz Birt and Dora.

Another book that does address the genetics of other tomato traits, in one section, id Carol Deppe's book on How to breed you own Vegetables, 2nd edition.

And there are several folks here at Tville who have extensive knowledge of tomato genetics.

One place to look is in the Forum on General Crossing, or whatever it's called, and another is to follow what some of the folks are doing with the dwarf project and breeding.

Between Keith's excellent site and the links he's provided, and the Deppe book as well as posting your questions in the general breeding Forum here I think you should be pretty well set.

There are huge tomes on tomato genetics, all about genetics, but trust me, they're too darn comprehensive and such books are also mainly for professional hybridizers and they're very expensive, like VERY.

Lastly, I know of no internet site where you can ask questions about tomato breeding with reference to the various genes and whether they are recessive or dominant, but that information is available as I mentioed above. Actually I remember another thread here where the same question was asked and perhaps you can do a search and find that thread but I think the same answers given here were given there as well.

Hope that helps

[Farmette]

Carolyn and Frogsleap:
Thanks for all the information. I am happy to hear that I will not have to quick my 2 book clubs just to brush up on this stuff.
Seriously, though, I will check out your recommendations and see if the library has Carol Deppe's book. While I haven't attempted any crosses, etc., it helps to have some backround to understand what the others on this great site are talking about...
Thanks again!
Chris