Which tomato has the most diverse DNA?

[carolyn137]

Fred Pritchard's name I know well and also Loran Blood's name as two of many who mainly in the 20's toearly 30's studied the basic traits of tomatoes since back then there were no DNA tests and more sophisticated methods of doing so.

Here's Marglobe from Tania

http://tatianastomatobase.com/wiki/Marglobe

And here's a link to a great site from 1927,scroll down to tomatoes,which I have posted many times here and elsewhere on the difference between fibrous and tap root structures.

http://soilandhealth.org/wp-content/...010137toc.html

There were many early breeders such as Blood and Livingston and Pritchard, and they had goals in mind when they crossed tomatoes, and made selections to get what they wanted or close to it.

Carolyn

[ilex]

Landrace tomatoes?

Very rare and strange for tomatoes as they mostly self pollinate, but there are examples. In this case, they might be closer to a varieties mix, but some crossing does happen every year.

[frogsleap farm]

It is widely accepted that wild relatives contain significantly more genetic diversity than the modern cultivated types of tomato (commercial hybrids and heirlooms). Charlie Rick estimated that wild relatives harbor 95%+ of the genetic diversity within Solanum. These wild relatives of tomato have contributed the vast majority of genes for resistance to various tomato pathogens, and will likely be a continued sources of genetic variation for tolerance to abiotic stress, and other characteristics . Can crosses to these wild relatives be used to improve cultivated tomato - yes they have. In fact, though it ★★★★es off some heirloom devotees, modern hybrids generally have more genetic diversity than heirlooms due to multiple introgressions of sequences from wild relatives for improved tolerance to multiple diseases.

[Dark Rumor]

Here is an article from Smithsonian
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel...ant-180955911/

Modern Tomatoes "possess no more than 5 percent of the total genetic variation present within the wild species and primitive varieties. The domestic tomato’s progenitor has the other 95 or more percent. Modern tomatoes may taste good and offer eye appeal, but they lack many genes that allow them to fight disease and survive drought."

Does anyone grow wild tomatoes?

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Dark Rumor

Here is an article from Smithsonian
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel...ant-180955911/

Modern Tomatoes "possess no more than 5 percent of the total genetic variation present within the wild species and primitive varieties. The domestic tomato’s progenitor has the other 95 or more percent. Modern tomatoes may taste good and offer eye appeal, but they lack many genes that allow them to fight disease and survive drought."

Does anyone grow wild tomatoes?

Wild cherry is very close a real die hard of a plant.

Worth

[joseph]

Originally Posted by Dark Rumor

Does anyone grow wild tomatoes?

I grow 5 species of wild tomatoes. So far, I have managed to cross one wild species with domestic tomatoes.

Next growing season, I may find some inter-species hybrids among the wild species. I'll be watching closely for them.

Fruits of an interspecies hybrid between domestic tomato and wild tomato.


Flowers of an interspecies hybrid between domestic tomato and wild tomato.

[Jimbotomateo]

Originally Posted by joseph

I grow 5 species of wild tomatoes. So far, I have managed to cross one wild species with domestic tomatoes.

Joseph could you expound on problems you've incurred trying to cross the wild ones with domestic. Do they just not take or they're not satisfactory for taste etc.? Found your threads interesting . Thanks

[Worth1]

It is hard to catch a wild tomato.

Worth

[Jimbotomateo]

Originally Posted by Worth1

It is hard to catch a wild tomato.

Worth

[joseph]

Originally Posted by Jimbotomateo

Joseph could you expound on problems you've incurred trying to cross the wild ones with domestic. Do they just not take or they're not satisfactory for taste etc.?

S. habrochaites worked well for me as a pollen donor to domestic tomatoes. I currently have F1 fruits that are a few weeks from ripening, so perhaps I'll be able to post an update at that time. The fruits were the largest of any of the varieties of wild species. The fruits were hairy. Taste is variable with some being very sweet when fully ripe and soft.

S. pennellii, grew poorly for me, both in the greenhouse, and in the field. So I didn't get any crosses made with it. A few seed-like things showed up in some of the attempted crosses, but they didn't germinate.

S. peruvianum, and S. corneliomulleri grew well for me, but none of the crosses I attempted to domestic tomatoes were successful. Neither were attempted crosses to S. pennellii. I attempted crosses to S. habrochaites. Still waiting on the fruits to ripen. I didn't emasculate the mothers so I'll have to grow them out and look for children with traits mid-way between those of the parent species.

S. pimpinellifolium grows fine for me, and has survived the frost tolerance testing two years in a row, but the flowers are so small that I haven't been interested in using it in my breeding projects. I'm very ham-fisted for dealing with such tiny flowers.

One ongoing source of difficulty was not having pollen available at the same time that mother flowers were available, at the same time that the farmer was available. I was not expecting the crosses using S. peruvianum and S. corneliomulleri to be successful, so no worries about those. Because the flowers were so attractive to pollinators, it was often a challenge to get pollen from the flowers before the bees had taken it away.

S. corneliomulleri did not produce very many fruits, but a few plants made a few fruits, so maybe next year the descendants of those may produce better. The fruits were very small.

S. peruvianum grew well, and produced lots of fruits and seeds. The fruits on some of the plants were sweet and fruity. So it seems like there are some good genes there that may eventually prove useful. I saved seeds from the sweetest-fruited, intending to plant them next year, and create a population of sweet tasting wild tomatoes by plain old selection.

I grew a patch of the wild species interplanted with each other. There were lots of pollinators present and visiting the flowers. So perhaps some interspecies hybrids were created. I'm intending to plant large numbers of them, and then screen for anything that looks like it might be an inter-species hybrid.

So overall, I'm thrilled that so many of the wild tomatoes did so well.

[Jimbotomateo]

Great read Joseph , thanks for elaboration! Don't understand it all but fascinating just the same. Maybe your work will lead to greater disease resistance and sustainment of organic and tasty food for immediate and long range practices. Any way it's fun!! Good to see your success and luck to you for next year where hopefully you'll keep us abreast of new creations! The wild ones that are isolated but together should prove interesting.

[BigVanVader]

I have S. pimpinellifolium coming up wild here ever since I grew it one year. I have grown to like the flavor and I am always amazed at how they can take anything. I have cut them down with a string trimmer and they come back. Never get disease, don't need watering etc. Would it be easy to cross them with other tomatoes? If I did would the crosses then have the genes responsible for the vigor of S.pip?

[joseph]

Originally Posted by BigVanVader

I have S. pimpinellifolium coming up wild here ever since I grew it one year. I have grown to like the flavor and I am always amazed at how they can take anything. I have cut them down with a string trimmer and they come back. Never get disease, don't need watering etc. Would it be easy to cross them with other tomatoes? If I did would the crosses then have the genes responsible for the vigor of S.pip?

S pimpinellifolium and domestic tomatoes are completely cross compatible. The offspring would have half of the genes responsible for the vigor of S.pimp. Then you'd get to select, or allow your environment to select for vigor.

[BigVanVader]

Originally Posted by joseph

S pimpinellifolium and domestic tomatoes are completely cross compatible. The offspring would have half of the genes responsible for the vigor of S.pimp. Then you'd get to select, or allow your environment to select for vigor.

Thanks Joseph, I really love following your threads. Thanks for the quick answer. I will have to try this on some of my favorite tomatoes. While I have you here may I ask what would you say is the minimum melon varieties I would need to grow to get enough genes for a good landrace? I love melons more than anything but they are nearly impossible to grow here w/o pesticides.

[joseph]

Originally Posted by BigVanVader

what would you say is the minimum melon varieties I would need to grow to get enough genes for a good landrace? I love melons more than anything but they are nearly impossible to grow here w/o pesticides.

Depends on the genetic diversity of what you start out with. If you start with a landrace, chances are pretty good that there'd be enough genetic diversity in it that something might work for you. When planting a packet of landrace seeds, it's like each seed is a unique variety, so it's an easy way to trial lots of varieties at little cost.

I trialed about 80 commercial/heirloom varieties when starting my muskmelon landrace. Most of them didn't even produce fruits, though some of the non-fruiting plants contributed pollen.

These days, when I start new landrace projects, I feel really content if I have about 5 different varieties in the beginning.

I really like getting seeds from the local farmer's market from farmers that are growing organically. Even if they are using commercial seeds, at least they are choosing varieties that do well under local conditions. In my initial muskmelon planting, I included seeds from melons obtained from 5 different local growers.