TITLE: Develop tomato breeding lines with resistance to Ralstonia solanacearum and begomoviruses for Guatemala and Central America
A. Overall aims and specific objectives
A.1. Overall aim:
Develop tomato breeding lines with resistance to the begomovirus and bacterial wilt strains present in Guatemala, identify major genes conferring resistance to these pathogens and develop molecular markers for combining resistance to both.
A.2. Specific research objectives:
1. Field test bacterial wilt-resistant tomato germplasm for resistance in Guatemala and selection of elite breeding lines.
2. Characterize the Ralstonia solanacearum isolates present in tomato fields in several regions of Guatemala.
3. Evaluate grafting desirable tomato cultivars onto bacterial wilt resistant root stock.
4. Develop PCR-based markers for the bacterial wilt resistance genes and begomovirus resistance genes-associated with germplasm selected in Guatemala.
5. Combine resistance genes for both begomoviruses and Ralstonia solanacearum into hybrids.
6. Evaluate different genes for resistance to begomoviruses in five locations, which have different begomoviruses.
B. Progess towards objectives
Characterization of R. solanacerum isoates in Guatemala
Grafting desirable tomato cultivars onto bacterial wilt resistant root stock
Evaluation of germplasm for resistance to bacterial wilt
Combine BW-resistant and Begomovirus-resistance into breeding lines
Evaluate different breeding lines for resistance in different locations
Tagging resistance genes for BW and begomoviruses