Transfer to Processing Tomato and Characterization of Late Blight Resistance Derived from Solanum pimpinellifolium L. L3708

Late blight [caused by Phytophthora infestans (Mont.) de Bary] causes severe loss of tomato [ Solanum lycopersicum L. (formerly Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.)] production in environments favorable to the pathogen. Researchers at the Asia Vegetable Research Development Center (AVRDC) identified resistance to late blight in an accession of S. pimpinellifolium [formerly L. pimpinellifolium (L.) Mill.] that they named accession L3708. This resistance has now been transferred to processing tomato lines, which are resistant to multiple P. infestans isolates. Lab trials, inoculated field trials in New York, and naturally infested field trials in Mexico all indicate that these processing tomato lines are fixed for late blight resistance. Segregation data obtained for resistance in the breeding populations were dependent on the pathogen isolate used for the disease screen. Segregation data do not support the hypothesis of single gene control of the full resistance trait, but instead suggest that more than one gene is involved, and that these genes interact in an epistatic manner.