Vol. 70 No: 1

Title:
Variability of Pollen Tolerance to Low Temperatures in Tomato and Related Wild Species

Authors:
R. FERNANDEZ-MUÑOZ, J.J. GONZALEZ-FERNANDEZ and J. CUARTERO

pp: 41-50

Abstract:
The poor viability of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) pollen formed at 10°C, or below, strongly decreases fruit set. We evaluated both pollen fertility and pollen shedding produced at minimum temperatures of 10°C or less, by respectively the number of seeds produced by artificial pollinations and the number of sampling dates in which plants released pollen from the anthers, in a total of 170 accessions of Lycopersicon species: L. esculentum (112), L. pimpinellifolium (Jusl.) Mill. (14), L. parviflorum Rick, Kes., Fob. & Holle (5), L. chmielewskii Rick, Kes., Fob. & Holle (1), L. chilense Dun. (3), L. hirsutum Humb. & Bonpl. (12), L. peruvianum (L.) Mill. (21), and L. pennellii (Corr.) D'Arcy (2). In L. esculentum, low temperatures affected pollen fertility negatively, and only ‘Mex-69’, ‘N-709’, ‘Mex-72’, ‘C-20’, ‘Stupicke Raneé’, ‘Mex-92’, ‘Mex-102’ and several other cultivars showed a partial pollen cold-tolerance level. The responses of the L. pimpinellifolium and L. chilense accessions were very similar to those of L. esculentum. L. parviflorum and L. chmielewskii accessions were moderately tolerant while L. hirsutum, L. peruvianum, and L. pennellii accessions generally produced fertile pollen below 10°C. The most interesting accessions of these three species were ‘PE-37’, ‘PE-39’, ‘PE-41’, and ‘LA 1777’ (L. hirsutum); ‘T-55’, ‘PI-251311’, ‘P1-126448’, ‘PI-126441’, ‘PE-20’, and ‘PE-18’ (L. peruvianum); and ‘PE-45’ and ‘PE-47’ (L. pennellii). While, in general, tomato cultivars had poor release of pollen, the accessions of wild species with fertile pollen at low temperatures shed pollen satisfactorily. The close association between pollen shedding and pollen fertility below 10°C should facilitate the incorporation of both characters into L. esculentum.

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