077 Identification of Molecular Markers Linked to Crown Rot Resistance (Frl) in Tomato

Fusarium crown and root rot (crown rot) develops on tomato from the fungus Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. radicis-lycopersici (FORL). Genetic resistance to crown rot was previously introduced into the cultivated tomato from the wild species Lycopersicon peruvianum and found to be a single dominant gene, Frl, on the long arm near the centromere of chromosome 9 of the tomato genome. In an effort to identify molecular markers tightly linked to the gene, Ohio 89-1 Fla 7226, Fla 7464, `Mocis', and `Mopèrou', lines homozygous for Frl (resistant), were screened with restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) markers in comparison to Fla 7482B and `Monalbo', lines homozygous for Frl+ (susceptible). Frl was determined to be between the RFLP markers CT208 and CD8. These two markers are separated by a genetic map distance of 0.9 cM according to Pillen et al. (1996). In addition, we screened a pool of eight resistant plants against a pool of nine susceptibles from a BC1 population segregating for Frl for amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers. Fazio et al. (1998) previously determined that crossover events occurred in these 17 plants between Frl and a rapid amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) marker, UBC194. Our research has indicated that UBC194 is also between CT208 and CD8 on the centromeric side of Frl. Of the 62 AFLP primer combinations tested, 34 showed more than 63 strong polymorphisms in linkage to resistant phenotypes.