Indirect selection of industrial tomato genotypes that are resistant to spider mites (Tetranychus urticae)

Acyl sugars present in the tomato Solanum lycopersicum 'LA-716' accession confer good levels of resistance to arthropod pests. The objective of the present study was to select F₂ plants from the interspecific cross Solanum pennellii 'LA-716' x Solanum lycopersicum 'Redenção' to assess resistance to spider mites (Tetranychus urticae) based on the leaf acyl sugar content and repellence tests. Four genotypes were selected with high leaflet acyl sugar content (RVTA-2010 pl#31, RVTA-2010 pl#75, RVTA-2010 pl#83, and RVTA-2010 pl#94), and an additional three genotypes with low acyl sugar content were also selected (RVTA-2010 pl#33, RVTA-2010 pl#39, and RVTA-2010 pl#73). The results from the in vivo tests used to confirm the selection of plants resistant to mites indicated that the genotypes with high acyl sugars content did not differ from the resistant parent LA-716. The negative correlation between acyl sugar content and the distance run by the mite along the leaflet surface confirmed the association between high and low allelochemical content and resistance. The medium degree of dominance (MDD) was estimated (MDD = -0.83), indicating that the high acyl sugar content was due to incomplete dominance of a recessive allele. A value of 81.85% was found for the broad sense heritability estimate, which suggests that most among-plant variation in the F2 generation is genetically based. Furthermore, 0.69 genes were estimated, which presumably confirms monogenic inheritance. Thus, indirect selection was an efficient method used to obtain industrial tomato plants that are resistant to spider mites.