Molecular Mapping of Ty-4, a New Tomato Yellow Leaf Curl Virus Resistance Locus on Chromosome 3 of Tomato

Resistance to begomoviruses, including bipartite tomato mottle virus (ToMoV) and monopartite tomato yellow leaf curl virus (TYLCV), has been introgressed to cultivated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) from Solanum chilense accessions LA1932 and LA2779. A major gene, Ty-3, responsible for resistance to ToMoV and TYLCV was previously mapped on the long arm of chromosome 6. In the present study, we identified a 14-cM S. chilense introgression on the long arm of chromosome 3 in some resistant breeding lines derived from LA1932. A new begomovirus resistance locus, Ty-4, was mapped to the 2.3-cM marker interval between C2_At4g17300 and C2_At5g60160 in the introgression. Analysis of a population segregating for Ty-3 and Ty-4 demonstrated that Ty-3 accounted for 59.6% of the variance, while Ty-4 only accounted for 15.7%, suggesting that Ty-4 confers a lesser effect on TYLCV resistance. Recombinant inbred lines (RILs) with Ty-3 and Ty-4 had the highest level of TYLCV resistance. The PCR-based markers tightly linked to the Ty-4 locus as well as the Ty-3 locus have been recently used in our breeding program for efficient selection of high-levels of begomovirus resistance and now allow for efficient breeding by marker-assisted selection.