Abstract:
Economically, the cultivated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L). is one of the most important vegetables grown and consumed for its fruit all over the world. Majority of commercial cultivars of the tomato have been developed through phenotypic selection and can be easily confused because have similar morphological traits. Therefore, it is necessary to create fast, sensitive, and reliable methods for the tomato commercial cultivars authentication. Intended for that, in this study, were evaluated nine tomato cultivars (Kristinica, Florina, Andrada, Buzău-1600, Buzău-47, Argeș-11, Argeș-20, Ștefănești-24 and Ștefănești-22) at molecular level with two markers systems: TBP (tubulin-based polymorphism) that relies on the presence of intron-specific DNA polymorphisms of the plant β-tubulin gene family and six start codon-targeted (SCoT) markers. TBP analyzes, for beta tubulin gene, was performed for the both introns. The results showed identical electrophoretic profiles, consequently, no polymorphism was observed at the genotypes analyzed. Molecular assay with SCoT markers (SCoT2, SCoT13, SCoT16, SCoT20, SCoT24 and SCoT28) revealed a low level of polymorphism, although, SCoT markers generated between 7 bands (SCoT28) and 12 bands (SCoT24), polymorphic bands were obtained only with SCoT13 and SCoT28. A distinct PCR product of 600 bp was identified at cultivar Ștefănești -24 with SCoT 13 and with the marker -SCoT28 a distinct product of 1100 bp was observed at the genotypes: Andrada, Buzău- 1600 and Buzău- 47. These results open perspectives for tomato commercial cultivars authentication.
