Genetic analysis of Na(+) and K (+) concentrations in leaf and stem as physiological components of salt tolerance in Tomato.

The sodium and potassium concentrations in leaf and stem have been genetically studied as physiological components of the vegetative and reproductive development in two populations of F(8) lines, derived from a salt sensitive genotype of Solanum lycopersicum cv. Cerasiforme, as female parent, and two salt tolerant lines, as male parents, from S. pimpinellifolium, the P population (142 lines), and S. cheesmaniae, the C population (116 lines). Genetic parameters of ten traits under salinity and five of them under control conditions were studied by ANOVA, correlation, principal component and QTL analysis to understand the global response of the plant. Two linkage maps including some tomato flowering time and salt tolerance candidate genes encoding for SlSOS1, SlSOS2, SlSOS3, LeNHX1, LeNHX3, were used for the QTL detection. Thirteen and 20 QTLs were detected under salinity in the P and C populations, respectively, and four under control conditions. Highly significant and contributing QTLs (over 40%) for the concentrations of Na(+) and K(+) in stems and leaves have been detected on chromosome 7 in both the populations. This is the only genomic position where the concentration QTLs for both the cations locate together. The proportion of QTLs significantly affected by salinity was larger in the P population (64.3%, including all QTLs detected under control) than in the C population (21.4%), where the estimated genetic component of variance was larger for most traits. A highly significant association between the leaf area and fruit yield under salinity was found only in the C population, which is supported by the location of QTLs for these traits in a common region of chromososome C1. As far as breeding for salt tolerance is concerned, only two sodium QTLs (lnc1.1 and lnc8.1) map in genomic regions of C1 and C8 where fruit yield QTLs are also located but in both the cases the profitable allele corresponds to the salt sensitive, cultivated species. One of those QTLs, lnc1.1 might involve LeNHX3.

Comparative microsatellite linkage analysis and genetic structure of two populations of F6 lines derived from Lycopersicon pimpinellifolium and L. cheesmanii.

A population of recombinant inbred lines (RILs) has several advantages over its F2 population counterpart with respect to quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and genomic studies. The objective of the investigation reported here was the comparative characterization by simple sequence repeat (SSR) and sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR) markers of two populations of F6 lines derived from Lycopersicon pimpinellifolium (P population, consisting of 142 lines) and L. cheesmanii (C population, consisting of 115 lines) and sharing the female parent, L. esculentum var. cerasiforme. Almost the same percentage of polymorphic markers was found for each population although a different set of markers was involved. The proportion of SSR primer pairs (93 in total) that resulted in polymorphism for the main band was larger (55-56%) than for SCAR ones (13-16%). The C population showed the largest proportion of markers with zygotic and gametic segregation distortion, which is in agreement with the larger genetic distance reported between L. esculentum and L. cheesmanii than with the former and L. pimpinellifolium. Zygotic distortion corresponded primarily to an excess of heterozygotes in both populations, suggesting that the increment of homozygosity was the main factor limiting viability/self-fertility of the lines. Despite both populations sharing the female parent, P alleles were slightly favored in the P population while E alleles were the most frequently fixed in the C population. A linkage map for each population was obtained, with the average distances between consecutive markers being 3.8 cM or 3.4 cM depending on the population. Discrepancy between the maps for the location of only four markers on chromosomes 3, 6 and 10 was observed. Two possible causes of this discrepancy were investigated and can not be discarded: (1) the presence of duplicated markers and (2) segregation distortion caused by the selective advantage of gametes carrying one of the two alleles. This marker characterization of both populations will continue and will enable the comparative QTLs and candidate gene analysis of complex traits towards a more efficient utilization of genetic resources and breeding strategies.