"ToBRFV resistance confirmed in our developed varieties"

Ever since ToBRFV was found, the breeding team of Yuksel Seeds put their efforts into finding resistant tomato sorts. Now, they're proud to announce the development of several resistant varieties. "Virus resistance of the developed cultivars was confirmed both in laboratory and in greenhouse conditions," the team shares.

Viruses that mutate due to the reasons such as climate change and heavy usage of pesticides are spreading rapidly around the world. One of these viruses, the Tomato Brown Rugose Fruit Virus ( ToBRFV), was first detected in 2014 and spread rapidly. Chlorotic mosaics, wrinkling, and deformation occur on tomato leaves, and yellow rings and brown and wrinkled spots are seen on fruits. ToBRFV has caused and continues to cause major economic damage to tomato production worldwide.

The most important preventive activity is to use varieties that have been made resistant to the virus by cross-breeding in order to prevent crop losses due to disease. This situation prompted Yuksel Seeds , a global seed company, to develop resistant varieties against ToBRFV.

"More than 2000 parental lines and approximately 1000 new tomato varieties are analyzed each year by our experienced breeding team and our expert researchers in our laboratories, who have been working on the selection of plants resistance to viral diseases for many years", says Hasan Kurt, Sales Manager Europe. "Thanks to the dedicated work of our breeding team and laboratory staff, a high degree of tolerance gene against ToBRFV has been detected in some lines in our genetic pool."

The first tests in the laboratories were carried out with molecular markers and pathological tests. As a result of the breeding programs carried out with the lines with tolerance gene detected by the breeding team, varieties resistant to ToBRFV have been developed. Virus resistance of the developed cultivars was confirmed both in laboratory and in greenhouse conditions.

"Finally, the strengths of the varieties we developed were validated by establishing trials in the infected areas. PCR techniques were used to confirm the contamination of plants by the virus. At the same time, the agronomic performances of the cultivars were tested in different locations and were selected considering these criteria", Hasan shows, adding that verifying the durability level of our varieties is a long but necessary process. "As a result of all these studies, the varieties with the highest virus resistance and yield have been selected and offered to our producers."

The primary control method in virus-borne diseases is the selection of varieties with high disease resistance. "Until now, registration procedures for many of our varieties resistant to ToBRFV have been completed. In addition, many of our varieties that are in the registration stage will be offered to the market in soon time."

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