Tomato growers will soon be able to cultivate varieties without having to apply pesticides to resist grey mould (Botrytis cinerea).
The research was pioneered by Richard Finkers from Wageningen University, as his doctoral thesis.
Finkers started off with wild tomato accessions that were resistant to grey mould. When crossing the resistant wild tomato Solanum habrochaites LYC4 with the susceptible S. lycopersicum cv, he identified two areas with resistant genes in their DNA.
This, however, did not explain all the variations in resistance. With this in mind, Finkers made a step-by-step scan of the entire genome of the wild tomato to identify locations that have an effect on resistance.
Ten areas were found that accommodated resistance factors against grey mould. DNA-markers were then developed for each area to be able to track the presence of each resistance factor in breeding programmes.
The new varieties will mean tomato growers will have to devote far less resources - or perhaps none at all - to combating B. cinerea. An additional benefit of these new tomatoes is that they will be more suitable for closed glasshouse cultivation.
This new type of glasshouse has a higher atmospheric humidity that actually increases the chance of grey mould activity.
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