Screening of Tomato Varieties for Resistance to Tomato Leaf Curl Viral Disease under Field Conditions

Abstract

T omato (Lycopersicume esculentum Mill.) belongs to the family Solanaceae and is a popular grown vegetable and rank third of worldwide vegetable production (Sadaf et al., 2012). Tomato is a good source of vitamins (A and C) and minerals. It is one of the most widely grown vegetable crops, highly popular due to its high nutritive value, taste and versatile use in various foods. In Pakistan tomato crop is cultivated on 58.4 thousand hectares, with production of 551.0 thousand tonnes and per hectare yield is estimated Abstract | Tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum Mill.) is important vegetable in Pakistan. Tomato leaf curl viral disease caused by tomato leaf curl virus (TLCV) (genus: Begomovirus, family: Geminiviridae) and transmitted by whitefly (Bemisia tabaci) is considered as the most devastating one. Recently, available tomato varieties are not screened against this disease in the agro-ecosystem of Sindh Province of Pakistan. Therefore, in this study 12 commercial varieties of tomato such as, TO