GENETIC DIVERSITY AND POSTHARVEST QUALITY OF GRAPE TOMATO GENOTYPES

Resumo

Abstract: Grape (oblong) and cherry (round) mini tomatoes has been conquering Brazilian consumers due to their sweet taste, practicality of consumption and versality in culinary use. This segment of vegetables is likely to increase profitability to the producer when compared to traditional tomatoes. However, there are few studies about oblong mini tomatoes, although this group currently dominates the Brazilian market. Therefore, the present work aimed to characterize ten hybrids of grape tomato based on genetic diversity. To this, we used physical, biochemical and molecular descriptors, in order to provide information to the development of new cultivars focused on the appearance and enrichment of nutritional factors. The Aiko genotype presented the highest fruit mass and size as opposed to that observed for SCI-023, while BRSIG presented the firmer fruit and the largest pericarp thickness. SCI-023, Dolcetto and Sweet Heaven have higher sugar content, and SCI-023, BRSIG, Sweet Heaven, BRS Zamir and Dulce had the highest levels of bioactive compounds and antioxidant activity. In the phenotypic characterization two groups were formed. The first one is composed by genotypes SCI-023, BRSIG and Sweet Heaven, and the second by the others. The genotypic characterization showed seven groups in which it was verified high genetic similarity between BRS Zamir, SCI-023 and Guaraci, as well as Carolina and Dulce, while the greatest dissimilarity was observed between Sweet and Heaven BRSIG. Both characterizations were useful to evaluate the aptitude of these grape tomato genotypes as parents in breeding programs to develop new cultivars for the Brazilian market.

keywords: Solanum lycopersicum L., horticulture, post-harvest, genotyping, phenotyping, mini vegetable.