Low-temperature-related growth and photosynthetic performance of alloplasmic tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) with chloroplasts from L. hirsutum Humb. & Bonpl.

Authors: Dolstra O.¹; Venema J.H.²; Groot P.J.¹; van Hasselt P.R.²

Source: Euphytica, Volume 124, Number 3, 2002 , pp. 407-421(15)

Publisher: Springer

Abstract:

Growth and photosynthetic performance were analyzed in alloplasmic tomato at a high- (25/17 ^°C; HTR) and low-temperature regime (12/6 ^°C; LTR) in order to establish the role of cytoplasmic variation on low-temperature tolerance of tomato ( Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.). Four alloplasmic tomato lines, containing the nuclear genome of tomato and the plastome of L. hirsutum LA 1777 Humb. & Bonpl., an accession collected at high-altitude in Peru, were reciprocally crossed with 11 tomato entries with a high inbreeding level and a wide genetic variation, resulting in a set of 44 reciprocal crosses. Irrespective of growth temperature, alloplasmic families with alien chloroplasts of L. hirsutum (h) were on average characterized by a high shoot biomass, a large leaf area, and a low specific leaf area in comparison with their euplasmic counterparts. These results do not directly point to an advantageous effect of h-chloroplasts on biomass accumulation at low temperature but rather towards a small general beneficial effect on growth and/or distribution of assimilates. Significant chloroplast-related differences in photosynthetic performance, however, were not detected at both temperature regimes, indicating that h-chloroplasts can properly function in a variable nuclear background of L. esculentum. It is concluded that chloroplast substitution is not an effective method for breeding tomato plants with improved low-temperature tolerance.

Keywords: alien cytoplasmic variation; chloroplasts; low-temperature tolerance; Lycopersicon esculentum; L. hirsutum; tomato

Language: English

Document Type: Regular paper

Affiliations: 1: Plant Research International, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands 2: Laboratory of Plant Physiology, Department of Plant Biology, University of Groningen, P.O. Box 14, 9750 AA Haren, The Netherlands

Publication date: 2002-01-01

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• In this Subject: Plant Culture ,  Botany
• By this author: Dolstra O. ;  Venema J.H. ;  Groot P.J. ;  van Hasselt P.R.

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