Format: ORAL

Iris Edith Peralta1

1 Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (UNCUYO) y Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET), Mendoza, Argentina.

Cultivated tomato, Solanum lycopersicum L., is a leading vegetable crop worldwide. It is also a model organism for genetics and evolutionary research. Using integrative taxonomy, a predictive classification of tomatoes and closely related groups was proposed, as a framework for further studies (Peralta et al. 2008). Wild tomato species are distributed in Colombia, Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands, Peru, Bolivia and Chile in different ecosystems. The cultivated tomato belongs to a very recently derived group and was domesticated from its wild progenitor, S. pimpinellifolium. Domestication process initiated in South America and Mesoamerica, continued in Europe when cultivated tomatoes were introduced in the sixteenth century in Italy, and later its expansion throughout the world as the species was incorporated into consumption. In the 20th century, modern breeding and the emergence of seed companies increased the development of new varieties, and more recently, commercial hybrids mainly with resistance to abiotic factors, pests and diseases, and quality traits. This long process has generated an enormous cultivar diversity due to their vegetative and reproductive growth, and fruit shapes, sizes, colors, and quality characteristics. An attempt has been made to apply a nomenclatural system based on the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature to tomatoes, but it is so complex that it has not been used. Taking into account a comprehensive taxonomy approach, a classification based on the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants is proposed, which is simple and easy to apply to describe new tomato cultivars, and potentially useful for harmonizing names and classification of breeding collections among genebanks. Classification criteria must contribute to understand and use the diversity among wild and closely related domesticated species. Peralta I.E., Spooner D.M., S. Knapp. 2008. Taxonomy of Wild Tomatoes and their Relatives (Solanum sect. Lycopersicoides, sect. Juglandifolia, sect. Lycopersicon; Solanaceae) Systematic Botany Monographs Vol. 84