*Department of Planning and Monitoring, T.N.A.U., Coimbatore-641 003, India.
Department of Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Centre for Plant Molecular Biology, T.N.A.U., Coimbatore-641 003, India.
Artificial screening of tomato wild species and cultivars for resistance to Fusarium revealed the wild species Lycopersicon peruvianum and L. pimpinellifolium were found to be resistant to Fusarium infection. The protein profile in L. peruvianum showed additional proteins of molecular sizes of 32kDa and 23kDa and an additional 34kDa protein was detected in L. pimpinellifolium. The peroxidase isozyme pattern was also found to be distinct in L. peruvianum. cDNAs of R genes coding for Fusarium resistance were isolated from the wild species, L. peruvianum (TNAU F) and L. pimpinellifolium (TNAU F1). The partial cDNAs were cloned in vector pTZ57R/T, sequenced and characterized. The tomato varieties and hybrid selected in this study were susceptible to Fusarium infection and did not show presence of (R) genes. Sequence analysis of the partial cDNAs corresponding to (R) genes isolated from the wild species L. peruvianum and L. pimpinellifolium showed considerable homology on the protein level with already available disease resistance genes. In the present study, (R) genes for Fusarium were isolated and characterized from the wild species of tomato. These results were important impact in terms of transformation strategies to develop Fusarium resistant transgenic plants.
Fusarium oxysporum, Hypersensitive reaction, Lycopersicon peruvianum, RT-PCR
