Scientists Study Diversity Between and Within Farmers' Tomato Varities from Eritrea

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is one of the economically important crops in Eritrea. However, the average yield of tomato in Eritrea is significantly smaller than the yield of tomato varieties from Africa and Italy. Thus, Samuel Asgedom of the Hamelmalo Agricultural College in Eritrea and colleagues analyzed the genetic diversity of 25 Eritrean tomato varieties commonly grown by farmers and compared them with other African and Italian varieties. Fifteen simple sequence repeat (SSR) molecular markers were used for the genetic analysis.

The researchers observed a high degree of diversity among the Eritrean varieties. Thirteen out of the 15 molecular markers express different phenotypes. Two major types of varieties were identified, and these are San-Marzano and Marglob. Eritrean varieties were also found to have less uniform genotypes compared to the Italian and African varieties. Based on a survey among the tomato farmers, some of them intentionally mix seeds of different varieties to extend the harvesting period, for yield stability, and stress tolerance.

Read the abstract of this study at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJB/PDF/pdf2011/21Mar/Asgedom%20et%20al.pdf.