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Old October 14, 2014   #4
Fusion_power
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Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Alabama
Posts: 2,250
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Don't bother. This is such old and blase' news that it is not worth reading.

The domestic tomato has less genetic diversity than any other domesticated crop. This is because it descended from just a few plants domesticated somewhere in central America. Charles Rick wrote and spoke quite a bit about this lack of diversity.

What is the significance of this "lack of diversity"? It means that all the variation in colors and shapes are from minor variations in about 50 genes, 12 or so affect shape, about 9 affect color, and the rest affect leaf structure, locules, and other traits. The result is that we can breed tomatoes until we are blue in the face, but we will NOT find good disease tolerance anywhere in domestic tomato. This is why so much effort has been put into crosses with wild tomato species which still have the natural diversity they started with. This is why I grew plants from a cross of Piennolo X LA0417 and another of Piennolo X LA2175. I want some of that diversity in my tomatoes because it means healthier plants and a chance to improve the genome.

Remind me to send you some of the Piennolo X LA0417 seed Joseph. It should have potential in your climate.
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