Abstract
Italy is one of the main producers and processors of tomato and it is considered a secondary center of diversity. In some areas, such as the Campania region (Southern Italy), a range of traditional tomato landraces is still cultivated. The distinction of this heritage germplasm is often based only on folk taxonomy and a more comprehensive definition and understanding of its genetic identity is needed. In this work, we compared a set of 15 local landraces (representative of traditional fruit types) to 15 widely used contemporary varieties, using 14 fluorescent Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) markers. Each of the accessions possessed a unique molecular profile and overall landraces had a genetic diversity comparable to that of the contemporary varieties. The genetic diversity, multivariate, and population structure analysis separated all the genotypes according to the pre-defined groups, indicating a very reduced admixture and the presence of a differentiated (regional) population of landraces. Our work provides solid evidence for implementing conservation actions and paves the way for the creation of a premium regional brand that goes beyond the individual landrace names of the Campania region known throughout the world.
Highlights
Is the leading European nation for tomatoes, considering the cultivated area, the total yield, and the output of the processing industry, which is second in the world only to that of the USA
The latter was the most diverse locus considering the number of effective alleles, a measure of diversity weighted for allele frequencies
We tested the hypothesis that a set of regional tomato landraces of Southern Italy represents a genetically differentiated group compared to contemporary varieties because of their origin and possible non-engagement of the breeding sector
Summary
Is the leading European nation for tomatoes, considering the cultivated area, the total yield, and the output of the processing industry, which is second in the world only to that of the USA (https://tinyurl.com/y2n6pg5n; accessed 10 March 2021). In the 18th century, the tomato was widespread in the Italian gastronomy especially in the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily (current Southern Italy), at that time under the Spanish rule of the House of Bourbon [4]. After WWII, Italian production reached its peak (in terms of commercial product and dedicated area) during the 1970s, after the widespread diffusion of contemporary varieties [6]. This expansion was accompanied by a strong decline in landrace cultivation, which until recently are predominantly grown in amateur family gardens and in small-size farms for local markets
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