S04 - Session O1 - Tamarillo breeding – better plants for better products

Authors: Sandra Correia, Jorge Canhoto *

Tamarillo, a trade name for Solanum betaceum Cav., was coined in New Zealand to make fruits more marketable and to increase farmer's profits. Known in Portugal as "tomate-de-árvore" (tree tomato), S. betaceum is a solanaceous tree with large leaves and egg-shaped edible fruits. The acidic fruits are rich in anthocyanins and carotenoids, organic acids and vitamin C. Native to the low altitude Andean regions (Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia) it thrives well in the sub-tropics and some temperate areas. During the last decade Portugal has considerably increased fresh fruit production as well as fruit exportation. Due to its climate, Portugal has unique conditions for growing a wide range of fruits. The well-known successes of kiwi and, more recently, blueberry, confirm this potential. Besides, consumers are quite receptive to red exotic fruits, perceived as important components of a healthy diet. One of them is tamarillo, which can reach the price of 10n15 €/kg in Europe. Several Portuguese producers started to grow tamarillo due to the high value of the fruits and the possibility of reaching Northern Europe markets. Main limitations to the successful cultivation of tamarillo in Portugal mainland are its cold sensitivity and poor drought tolerance. Since in the Portuguese Atlantic islands of Azores and Madeira these stresses are minimal, these areas are those more indicated for this specie, especially Madeira. Most tamarillo plants that are being used in Portuguese orchards have been produced in our laboratory, where several tamarillo genotypes have been established in vitro . During the last 5 years we have been working in a project titled "Tamarillo plants n better plants for better products". In this work, our main achievements in the framework of this project, concerning genotype phenotyping, hybridization assays, fruit analysis, optimization of micropropagation protocols through axillary shoot proliferation, organogenesis and somatic embryogenesis, tetraploid plant production, molecular analysis of morphogenic pathways and the quality of the fruits for processing will be presented and discussed.