Identification of bacterial wilt (ralstonia solanacearum) resist ance in cherry tomato

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is an important vegetable crop grown in tropical and subtropical areas of world. Bacterial wilt caused by Ralstonia solanacerum, is one of the most serious diseases causing substantial crop yield losses up to 100 percent under favorable climatic conditions. The identification of new sources is the first step toward the development of bacterial wilt resistant cultivars. The objective of this study was to evaluate 81 accessions of S. lycopersicum var. cerasiforme (cherry tomato) along with resistant and susceptible checks for resistance to the highly aggressive isolates of R. solanacearum Pss4 and Pss1632. Tomato accessions H7996 and L390 were used as resistant and susceptible checks, respectively. The resistant control (H7996) was resistant to Pss4, and moderately resistant to Pss1632. The accession VI005692 was highly resistant to Pss1632 strain. In addition, two accessions VI005936 and VI006074 were moderate resistant to Pss1632 strain. However, all cherry tomato accessions were susceptible to Pss4. These bacterial wilt-resistant tomato accessions may be of interest for the development of resistant rootstocks and/or cultivars that can be used to control bacterial wilt in tomato.