Abstract

Limachino tomato is an emblematic local variety cultivated by tomato growers of the Marga Marga Province at Valparaiso region until the 1970 decade. The use of this variety has suffered a decline due to its replacement by more productive tomato cultivars. At present, INIA is conducting an initiative to promote its reintroduction, valorization and protection of this tomato for small tomato traditional farmers. Thirteen accessions named Limachino and collected in 1960 (1 accession and our reference sample), 1980 (6 accessions) and 2015 (6 accessions) are currently available. Objetives: i) To deteremine if Limachino variety was integrally conserved by the growers in situ (on farm conservation) for among fifty years and ii) to reveal genetic diversity and determine if Limachino tomato can be differentianted from other tomato varieties cultivated in the territory. At present, 4 polymorphic SSR markers were set and used to characterize Limachino and other tomato accessions from different origins and cultivated in the territory at different periods. Three SSR markers were polymorphic in the whole collection of 19 genotypes. The total number of amplified alleles were 13 with a mean of 5.15. Cluster analysis grouped the accessions in three main clusters, one of each grouped accessions 22 and FL4 together with accession 28 (reference sample) revealing that they are very closed related materials. The others Limachino accessions probably could be “population varieties” in that within each of them polymorphic DNA fragments were identified. Polymorphism within plants in one accession could be due to seed contamination or some level of admixture due to geneflow. The Bayesian analysis approach revealed four differentiated genetic groups. Genetic similarity among accessions 22, 28 and FL4 are in accordance to what is has been observed in the field.