The Tomato Genetic Resource Collection

The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is a mainly self-pollinating plant belonging to the Solanaceae family. There are many wild related species of tomato that are more or less easy to cross.
coltom2

The Tomato collection was created at INRAE in 1958 and has expanded over the years to meet the needs of successive breeding programs.

S.habrochaites
Espèce apparentée Solanum habrochaites

It currently has more than 2,500 accessions of cultivated tomato from around the world and a hundred accessions belonging to 10 wild related species. The heart of the collection consists of round red tomatoes, but has recently expanded to include accessions with diverse shapes, colour and fruit size (especially cerasiforme tomatoes).

The Tomato Network was created in 1997 with 12 partners including 10 seed companies. This network has helped save and share genetic material, and also allows discussions between professionals on field trials.

As a result of material shared by the network, the national Tomato collection includes 56 accessions of old varieties of French origin.

⇒ You can view the National Tomato Collection online

Divtomate
Aperçu de la diversité des tomates conservées à l'INRA

For research purposes, INRAE has also established scientific collections, especially populations of recombinant inbred lines, advanced backcross, intra- and interspecific populations and multi-parent populations (MAGIC), representing more than 1,000 accessions.

⇒ To find out more about current Tomato research programs: link

 

Learning resources

You can freely use these learning and communication tools by mentioning the source (INRA CRB-Leg). Send us feedback on their use.

  • Poster of the “History of the introduction of the tomato and pepper”

In this folder

The Solanaceae Genetic Resources Network of seed vegetables has been managed by the CRB-Leg since 1996. It has allowed sharing of materials and the burden of maintenance and phenotyping between partners.

Modification date: 08 November 2023 | Publication date: 08 April 2016 | By: RS