Development and selection of tomatoes genotypes from high-temperature tolerant

• Grant number: 19/17804-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: November 01, 2019
• End date: December 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Crop Science
• Principal Investigator: André Ricardo Zeist
• Grantee: Nilson Rodrigues Junior
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias. Universidade do Oeste Paulista (UNOESTE). Campus de Presidente Prudente. Presidente Prudente , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The increased frequency of events with extremely high temperatures tends in the coming years to impair plant reproduction and development. A classic example of the continuous rise in temperature is the Midwest region of the state of São Paulo where frequent heat spells occur (temperatures have risen above 40 °C). High temperatures compromise the development of the cultivated tomato and limit the geographical areas of production and the period of cultivation. These aspects make the search for genetic tolerance extremely important to stabilize fruit production in regions subject to constant temperature increase. There are several tomato wild accesses that are adapted to various types of climate, such as 'PI-127826' belonging to Solanum habrochaites var. hirsutum. Given the above, this project aims to explore the heat tolerance present in the 'PI-127826' access to introduce high temperature tolerance alleles in commercial cultivars. For this, parameters indicative of seedling stress will be evaluated. For comparison and selection of plants with higher heat tolerance, the responses of the seedlings submitted to stress will be compared with the responses obtained in cultivated plants. In the 12 months, the scholarship holder will act in the selection of second generation F2 genotypes obtained from the crossing of Solanum lycopersicum tomato lines with characteristics for fresh consumption and processing (recurrent parents) with wild access S. habrochaites var. hirsutum 'PI-127826' (donor parent), with good tolerance to high temperatures and which may contribute to cultivar development. Following the proposal, through backcrossing of F2 genotypes with the recurrent parent (Solanum lycopersicum) will be possible to select plants with commercial standard and tolerant to high temperatures. (AU)