Sources of Resistance to Pepino mosaic virus in Tomato Accessions

Pepino mosaic virus (PepMV) is an emerging disease on greenhouse tomato. This highly contagious disease is difficult to control. The best disease management strategy is likely through the use of disease resistance. A major tomato germplasm core collection was evaluated for its resistance against PepMV. These accessions included 23 Solanum lycopersicum, 8 S. pimpinellifolium, 33 S. peruvianum, 18 S. chilense, and 27 S. habrochaites. The results showed that all plants in the accessions corresponding to S. lycopersicum and S. pimpinellifolium were susceptible to PepMV-US infection. On the other hand, two accessions of S. peruvianum (LA107 and LA1305) and S. chilense (LA1971 and LA2748) appeared to have some levels of moderate resistance. However, the most promising resistance segregated in three S. habrochaites accessions (LA1731, LA2156, and LA2167). Resistant plants from these three S. habrochaites accessions were saved for selection. A secondary screening was carried out with progenies generated from the selected plants. These tests showed the segregation of broad-spectrum resistance from the selected S. habrochaites plants against PepMV, especially in LA1731. The segregated LA1731 plants were resistant to not only the U.S. type isolate but also the European type isolate.