Dwarf Tomato Plants Allow for Managing Agronomic Yield Gains with Fruit Quality and Pest Resistance through Backcrossing

Increased productivity, nutritional quality, and pest resistance have been primary breeding goals. However, managing such increases in a genotype is challenging. In this context, gene introgression using dwarf plants is an alternative; however, there are no dwarf Santa Cruz tomato varieties for direct use in breeding programs. Therefore, the objective of this study was to improve fruit quality and pest resistance through successive backcrossing of dwarf Santa Cruz tomato populations with agronomic potential. Six and 13 dwarf tomato populations obtained from the first and second backcrossing, respectively, the donor parent, and the commercial cultivar 'Santa Clara' as the check, totalling 21 treatments, were evaluated. Univariate analysis and computational intelligence were used to evaluate the best genotypes. All agronomic variables showed significant and progressive increases after the first and second backcrossing. The highlighted BC2 populations were Sci#16.1-2, Sci#25.1,1-2, Sci#25.1,2-2, Sci#3.1,1-2, Sci#3.1,2-2, Sci#8.3,1-2, and Sci#8.3,2-2, with significant increases in mean fruit weight, pulp thickness, fruit length and diameter, and acyl sugar content. The selected BC2 populations can be used as male parents to obtain normal hybrids to achieve increased productivity, nutritional quality, and a broader spectrum of pest resistance owing to the presence of acyl sugars in the leaflets.