SEXUAL AND SOMATIC HYBRIDIZATION IN THE GENUS LYCOPERSICON

In recent years, a large number of reports have been published on the recovery of somatic hybrids in the genus Lycopersicon and their potent ial use as a tool in plant breeding programs. Somatic hybridization as a way of enabling the incompatibility barriers which exist within the genus Lycopersicon to be bypassed has attracted great interest. Wild Lycopersicon species harbor numerous interesting agronomic characteris tics, which could be transferred to tomato by somatic hybridization. I n particular, the production of asymmetric hybrids is explored as an a pproach to obtain the transfer of only a part of the nuclear genome of wild Lycopersicon species. Considerable information is available on t he fate of chloroplasts and mitochondria in fusion products in Lycoper sicon, and unfortunately, cybridization (transfer of chloroplasts and/ or mitochondria) seems often difficult to achieve.