Varietal improvement of tomato for tomato yellow leaf curl virus resistance

Abstract

Improvement of tomato for resistance to tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV) were carried out by using a pedigree and backcrossing methods and crossing between resistant parent H-24 with susceptible parents CT-1 and CT-2. The virus was transmitted by viruliferous whiteflies and virus infection was detected by sandwich ELISA. F2 generation showed moderate resistance with scores ranging from 1.58-3.21. Segregation of disease resistance was observed among the population. Virus detection of the F2 populations (scoring 1 or 2) showed virus titer which were not statistically different from H24 but were significantly different from CT-1, CT-2 and susceptible control. The disease severity and virus titer in infected plants of F2 populations showed positive correlation. From this breeding experiment, 6 lines selected from F2CT-1 x H-24 and 5 lines selected from F2 CT-2xH-24 showing TYLCV resistance which the score of 1 were obtained.