In October 2020 Enza Zaden announced the discovery of the High Resistance gene to ToBRFV. It has now issued an update on how this is being introduced to the company’s varieties.
Martijn van Stee, Crop Breeding Manager Tomato, commented, “Since we discovered the ToBRFV high resistance gene we worked hard on introducing it in our elite parent lines. At this moment we have high-quality parent lines with the ToBRFV resistance. This helps us to make high resistance tomato varieties.”
Enza Zaden has also undertaken trials with high resistant varieties over the past year. “We trailed the first tomato varieties already in Europe, Mexico and the Middle East,” continued Martijn. “And what we saw there really convinced us again that the ToBRFV resistance is holding very well.”
Kees Konst, Crop Research Director, added, “In the meantime, we started up also the seed production of the hybrids. We already have some examples of high resistance varieties in our hands. With high resistance, you will not have any problems, because there is no virus in the plant or the fruit. You keep your soil, your water, everything clean.”
However, the company admits that commercially available varieties are still some way off. “Our breeders are very busy filling the pipeline to make more elite parent lines with resistance, and to make more varieties with resistance. The solution is right around the corner,” concluded Martijn.
Photo source: Enza Zaden