CHARACTERIZATION OF THE RESISTANCE OF TOMATO ACCESSIONS FROM THE BGH-UFV TO THE GEMINIVÍRUS TOMATO YELLOW SPOT VIRUS

Abstract

The viruses transmitted by whiteflies are among those causing relevant losses in tomato cultivation. Among the measures to control these agents, introducing genes for resistance constitutes the main control measure, together with vector control. The objective of this work was to screen for sources of natural resistance to Tomato yellow spot virus (ToYSV) in S. lycopersicum germplasm from the Banco de Germoplasma de Hortaliças (BGH) of the Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), Minas Gerais, Brazil. The 99 accessions and two susceptible controls were inoculated using biolistics. Inoculated plants were grown under greenhouse conditions. The percentage of plants displaying virus symptoms was evaluated at 10, 20 and 30 days after inoculation (DAI). Virus presence or absence in the inoculated plants was confirmed by hybridization with probes labeled with á-[32P]-dCTP, for each evaluation date. Inoculated plants produced typical disease symptoms showing different behavior on the genotypes in relation to ToYSV. Some of the evaluated genotypes showed higher virus tolerance compared to two susceptible controls, in particular the accessions BGH-2039V and BGH-2041 which showed no symptoms and no viral DNA accumulation in 80% of the inoculated plants at 30 DAI. The results suggest that the selected tomato accesses are good sources of resistance to new tomato cultivars tolerant to ToYSV.