Molecular Approaches of Early Blight Resistance Breeding

Abstract

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is one of the chief vegetable crop grown throughout the world. Both fresh and processed fruits are used, which contain various vitamins, minerals, etc. The production of tomatoes is affected by several diseases, insects, and pests. Among them, early blight (EB) is one of the most serious diseases caused by Alternaria solani. EB resistance in tomatoes is difficult due to the polygenic nature of inheritance, which causes difficulties in understanding and screening of the disease. Several chemical pesticides were used for the management of this disease. But these chemical has shown not much effective measures leads to the use of crop-related species which is best alternatives. Two wild species namely, S. habrochaites and S. pimpinellifolium have inadequate level of resistance as an individual 78and the undesirable horticultural traits from the introgression of the wild species genes results in limited success for EB resistant breeding program.