IDENTIFICATION OF QUANTITATIVE TRAIT LOCI ASSOCIATED WITH ACYLSUGAR ACCUMULATION USING INTRASPECIFIC POPULATIONS OF THE WILD TOMATO, LYCOPERSICON PENNELLII

Lycopersicon pennellii LA716, a wild relative of tomato, is resistant to a number of insect pests due to the accumulation of acylsugars exud ed from type IV trichomes. These acylsugars are a class of compounds i ncluding both acylglucoses and acylsucroses. Intraspecific populations between L. pennellii LA716 and L. pennellii LA1912, the latter an acc ession that assorts for low-level acylsugar accumulation, were created to study the inheritance of type IV trichome density, acylsugar accum ulation levels, percentage of acylsugars that are acylglucoses, and le af are. The F-2 population was subsequently used to determine genomic regions associated with these traits. The relative proportion of acylg lucoses acylsucroses was found to be largely controlled by a single lo cus near TG549 on chromosome 3. One locus on chromosome 10 showed sign ificant associations with acylsugar levels. In addition, 1 locus on ch romosome 4 showed significant associations with leaf area. Ten additio nal loci showed modest associations with one or more of the traits exa mined, 5 of which have been previously reported.