VRT 2-2-3-1 (Tomato advanced line)

Technology Background:

Tomato (yellow) leaf curl disease (TYLCD/ToLCD) is a major biotic constraint in tomato production and can cause 100% yield loss if young tomato plants are infected. ToLCD caused by be gomo viruses and transmitted by whitefly (Bemisiatabaci). Whitefly is polyphagous pest and it is highly difficult to control this pest. 

Technology Details:

Among different available strategies, cultivating ToLCD resistant cultivars is the most effective, economical and environmentally safe strategy to manage the disease. Ty3 a resistance gene is offering good resistance against different species of TOLCV and reliable markers are available for the gene. With the help of marker assisted selection VRT 2-2-3-1 was developed and it shows high level of resistance to ToLCD. The tomato line VRT 2-2-3-1 recorded an average fruit yield of 4.94 kg. The fruits of the line VRT 2-2-3-1 showed high pericarp thickness (0.67 cm) with an average locule number of 2.7 per fruit. Fruit of VRT 2-2-3-1 are round and has green shoulder. VRT 2-2-3-1 has good combining ability. With ToLCV resistance, desirable horticultural characters, green shoulder and combining ability, VRT 2- 2-3-1 can be used in different tomato TOLCV resistance breeding programmes like the line can be used as a parent in hybrid development programmes especially for green shoulder market segment and as source of Ty-3 gene in gene pyramiding programmes with other economically useful genes.