VRT 6-1-4 (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. Ty2 and Ty3 resistance genes are well characterized genes and offering good resistance against different species of TOLCV and reliable markers are available for both the genes. With the help of marker assisted selection VRT6-1-4 was developed with both the genes pyramided and it shows high level of resistance to ToLCD. The pyramided line VRT6-1-4 recorded an average fruit yield of 3.22 kg/plant. The fruits of pyramided line D6-1-4 showed high pericarp thickness of 0.5-0.6 cm with an average locule number of 3.8 per fruit and total soluble solids (TSS) of 4.8 Brix. VRT6-1-4 has round to high round fruits that ripen uniformly. VRT6-1-4 can be used in the tomato ToLCV resistance breeding programmes. It can be used as inbred in hybrid development programmes especially for uniform ripening market segment and as a source of Ty-2 and Ty-3 in gene pyramiding programmes with other economically useful genes.