Assessment of morpho-physiological characters of inter-specific hybrids of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum × Solanum pimpinellifolium)

Abstract

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is an important protective food containing abundant balanced nutrients like vitamins A, B C, minerals, dietary fibres and lycopene. Only 5% of the total genetic variability is contributed by S. lycopersicum to the tomato gene pool (Miller and Tanksley 1990). S. pimpinellifolium, a closely related species of S. lycopersicum is the only red fruited wild species from which natural introgression into cultivated tomato has been detected (Rick 1982). S. pimpinellifolium is also a good reservoir of a number of useful traits like high fruits per plant, fruits per cluster, quality traits and resistance to biotic stresses (Foolad 2007). The close phylogenetic relationship between these two species probably accounts for the bidirectional cross compatibility of S. pimpinellifolium with cultivated tomato (Bedinger et al. 2011). The inter-specific hybridization with S. pimpinellifolium is one of the many options for broadening the genetic base of the cultivated varieties of tomato along with the studies on the variability of morpho-physiological traits in parents and interspecific crosses. The present study was conducted with the aim that selection based on better cross combination through yield attributing traits of parents used in breeding programmes, perhaps may be a better way for exploiting the crosses further for inter-specific gene transfer from the wild species.