Division of Vegetable Crops, Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Hessaraghatta Lake, Bangalore-560089, India.
Tomato is one of the most popular vegetables of wide spread cultivation throughout the world and it is rich source of vitamins A and C, lycopene and beta-carotene, which are anti-oxidant that promotes good health. World's acreage of tomato is 4.1 m ha. With a productivity of 26 tons/ha, while in India, it is cultivated in 0.52 m ha. With a productivity of 14 tons/ha. Now a days tomato is being grown throughout the year. However during the summer month's high temperature coupled with ToLCV are the major production constraints. High temperature causes stigma exsertion, which results in poor pollination, poor fruit set and drastic reduction in yield. At present, no tomato varieties/hybrids are available for summer cultivation. Therefore, it is inevitable to combine high temperature tolerance and ToLCV resistance in tomato. There is an urgent need to develop tomato varieties/hybrids with tolerance to high temperature and resistance to ToLCV. Preliminary studies were under taken to identify heat tolerant lines in tomato. A total of 25 lines were screened for tolerance to high temperature and ToLCV during summer 2006. Of which, sixteen lines viz; IIHR-2195, IIHR-2196, IIHR-2197, IIHR-2199, IIHR-2000, IIHR-2201, IIHR-2202 IIHR-2223, IIHR-2230, IIHR-2231, IIHR-2234, IIHR-2239, IIHR-2243, IIHR-2248, IIHR-2249 and IIHR-2251 were found to be tolerant to high temperature and resistant to ToLCV and all the lines had high per cent fruit set under field conditions. Efforts are on the way to transfer heat tolerance and ToLCV to desirable genetic background.
