a
The History of Tomato Breeding
at the University of Florida's
Gulf Coast Research & Education Center
The vegetable industry, with an estimated annual income of over 1.7 billion dollars, represents the largest segment of Florida's agricultural income. The uniqueness of Florida's humid, subtropical climate and infertile soils has dictated the necessity for continuing research to provide relevant solutions to problems growers encounter in their efforts to maintain Florida's position as the second largest vegetable producing state in the United States.
In 1942, a full-fledged tomato breeding program was initiated which has resulted in numerous releases. Some of the key contributions include 'Manalucie' in 1953 which combined resistance to more than five diseases.
In the 1960s, GCREC and Gainesville scientists identified a gene conferring resistance to fusarium wilt race 2 that has become one of the most widely used genes by tomato breeders around the world. In 1969, 'Walter', the first tomato variety with fusarium wilt race 2 resistance was released, eliminating a disease that was devastating the Florida tomato industry.
A joint research effort between the GCREC tomato breeding program and the H. J. Heinz Co. resulted in the development of breeding lines with improved firmness that have been the basis of firmness for breeding programs around the world and allowed for improved shipping quality of Florida tomatoes. In 1971, the first machine harvest fresh market tomato variety 'Florida MH-1' was released. This variety combined firmness with the jointless pedicel trait that allowed stemless harvesting.
The hybrid 'Floramerica' won a bronze medal in the All America Vegetable Trials in 1974 and was released in 1977. It has been widely grown by home gardeners throughout North America.
The heat-tolerant hybrid 'Solar Set', released in 1989, improved fall crop yields in Florida and has been widely grown commercially in the 1990's. It has also performed well for flavor in numerous sensory panels.
The dwarf 'Micro-Tom' variety, released in 1989 as "the world's smallest tomato" for the nursery industry, is now being used as a model system for mutagenesis in molecular genetics laboratories around the world. In the 1980's, GCREC scientists discovered a gene for resistance to fusarium wilt race 3 that is used by tomato breeders worldwide. Two fusarium wilt race 3 resistant breeding lines were released in 1994 and one, Fla. 7547, is a parent in the resistant hybrid 'Floralina' that is presently being grown on farms infested with this disease. The two fusarium wilt resistant releases and two fusarium crown and root rot resistant breeding lines released in 1999 all possess the crimson gene that increases lycopene by 50%. Lycopene has recently been shown to be a potent antioxidant associated with risk reduction of several cancers so crimson varieties may prove important for the Florida tomato industry in the future. Soon commercial varieties may be released with the crimson trait. Bacterial spot tolerant varieties may also be released in the near future.
Click here to view the paper (431 kb file - requires Acrobat Reader) entitled, "The University of Florida Tomato Breeding Accomplishments and Future Directions." To return to this site, close the separate window that will open.
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