SALT TOLERANCE IN LYCOPERSICON SPECIES .2. GENETIC-EFFECTS AND A SEARCH FOR ASSOCIATED TRAITS

Eleven quantitative traits, mostly related to tomato plant growth and fruit set, and their association with salt tolerance in terms of fruit yield under a 171.1 mM NaCl treatment have been investigated in 206 p rogeny derived from an interspecific hybrid, L esculentum x L. pimpine llifolium, by self-pollination. None of the traits were highly correla ted phenotypically to salt tolerance; however, the immunologically-det ected presence of peptide 2' was significantly associated with high to tal fruit weight (TW) and number (FN) under saline treatment. Broad-se nse heritability was estimated for these two salt-tolerance components as 53.44 and 72.59 %, respectively. Non-additive gene effects, which have to be considered in a breeding program for salt tolerance, have b een detected in TW, FN and in average fruit weight (FW). Given that di fferent types of gene action have been found depending on the presence or absence of a high NaCl concentration in the nutrient solution, a d ifferent set of genes, or genes, differently regulated, must be involv ed in the expression of TW, FN and other fruit-related characters depe nding on this environmental condition.