AUTHOR=Kwabena Osei Michael , Danquah Agyemang , Adu-Dapaah Hans , Danquah Eric , Blay Essi , Massoudi Mark , Maxwell Douglas 

TITLE=Marker assisted backcrossing of alcobaca gene into two elite tomato breeding lines

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Horticulture

VOLUME=1

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/horticulture/articles/10.3389/fhort.2022.1024042

DOI=10.3389/fhort.2022.1024042

ISSN=2813-3595

ABSTRACT=<p>Tomato is one of the most important vegetable crops cultivated and consumed worldwide. Demand is increasing daily because of increase in per capita fresh fruit consumption. Despite the economic importance of tomato, it has relatively short shelf-life after ripening and experiences remarkable post-harvest losses. This study was aimed at using marker-assisted backcrossing (MABC) to transfer shelf-life gene (<italic>alc</italic>) into the genetic background of two elite Ghanaian tomato breeding lines. The MABC derived lines at BC<sub>2</sub>F<sub>3</sub> were evaluated to confirm selections using molecular markers. All the MABC-derived lines gave significant extended shelf life compared to the checks except for Alc-LA3134, the <italic>alc</italic> donor parent, which was, however, not significantly different from one of the backcrosses (BC<sub>2</sub>F<sub>2.3</sub>-E-80-19-26). This confirms that the genetic regulation of the shelf-life trait is dependent on the <italic>alc</italic> gene. The performance of the donor check (Alc-LA3134) against the 12 MABC-derived lines indicated no significant differences for the fruit firmness (except for BC<sub>2</sub>F<sub>2.3</sub>-E-80-19-4), number of locules per fruit and shelf life (for only BC<sub>2</sub>F<sub>2.3</sub>-E-80-19-26), thus suggesting similar backgrounds of the MABC as the recurrent parents. A considerable increase in the shelf-life value was observed among the MABC-derived lines. The introgression of the <italic>alc</italic> gene into cultivated tomatoes for extended shelf-life could reduce post-harvest losses of tomato in Ghana.</p>