Inheritance of Resistance to Anthracnose Caused by Colletotrichum coccodes in Tomato

Abstract

Inheritance of resistance to tomato anthracnose caused by Colletotrichum coccodes (Wallr.) S.J. Hughes was evaluated in parental, F1, F2, and backcross populations developed from crosses between adapted resistant (88B147) and susceptible (90L24) tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) breeding lines. Resistance was evaluated via measurement of lesion diameters in fruit collected from field-grown plants and puncture inoculated in a shaded greenhouse. Backcross and F2 populations exhibited continuous distributions suggesting multigenic control of anthracnose resistance. Anthracnose resistance was partially dominant to susceptibility. Using generation means analysis, gene action in these populations was best explained by an additive-dominance model with additive × additive epistatic effects. A broad-sense heritability (H) of 0.42 and narrow-sense heritability (h2) of 0.004 was estimated for resistance to C. coccodes. One gene or linkage group was estimated to control segregation for anthracnose resistance in the cross of 90L24 × 88B147.