DEVELOPMENT OF FRESH MARKET TOMATO LINES WITH SUPERIOR QUALITY ATTRIBUTES

WOS: 000509426700011As a common practice in vegetables, breeding programs designed to develop F1 hybrids mostly focused on yield and disease and pest resistance in tomatoes. However, breeding programs are prioritizing fruit quality attributes to satisfy consumers in. To stay competitive in ever changing markets, seed companies take fruit quality criteria into consideration as yield increase leveling off for hybrid tomato. Therefore, the study was designed to develop new tomato lines with superior fruit quality. Advanced tomato lines resistant to tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV), tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV), root-knot nematods (Mi), Verticilium dahlie (Va), Fusarium oxysporum (F. radici Frl. and F. lycoperci I-1, I-2, I-3) and powdery mildew (o1-1, o1-2) were used as the plant materials. the 102 tomato genotypes suitable for autumn-spring cultivation were assessed for fruit quality parameters replicated in time and space in greenhouse trials. the 33 of advanced tomato lines exhibited relatively superior quality attributes for one or more traits measured. Based on parental line results, compatible lines for fruit quality were crossed, resulting with 12 hybrids with commercial level competitive advantage. Four of the 12 hybrids that combined fruit quality with yield and disease resistance were especially found to be highly cornpletive in fresh market tomato market