Assessment of genetic purity of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) hybrid using molecular markers

Three DNA molecular marker systems, RAPD, ISSR and SSR, were used to test seed genetic purity of two commercial hybrid tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) cultivars ‘Hezuo 903’ and ‘Sufen No. 8’. Genomic DNA from the two F₁ hybrid cultivars and their corresponding parental lines was screened with 218 RAPD decamer primers, 54 ISSR primers and 49 SSR primers. Among the 321 primers, 4 primers for ‘Hezuo 903’ and 3 for ‘Sufen No. 8’, which could produce both female and male parent-specific markers, were selected for testing the genetic purity. A total of 210 hybrid individuals of each cultivar were analyzed using the identified primers. The combined results of the marker analysis showed that eight of the 210 F₁ plants in ‘Hezuo 903’ and 13 of 210 in ‘Sufen No. 8’ were false hybrids, and the overall genetic purity of the two F₁ hybrid seed lots was 96.2 and 93.8%, respectively. This study showed that RAPD and SSR markers could provide a practical and efficient tool in quality control of the tomato commercial hybrid seeds.