Transfer of Anthocyanin Accumulating Delila and Rosea1 Genes from the Transgenic Tomato Micro-Tom Cultivar to Moneymaker Cultivar by Conventional Breeding.

Delila and Rosea1 anthocyanin accumulation genes were subjected to bioinformatics analysis. Delila protein has 56-69% similarity with different anthocyanin-rich plants, while Rosea1 protein has 83-87% with anthocyanin-rich plant proteins. This study aimed at transferring Delila and Rosea1 genes from the transgenic Micro-tom tomato cultivar to the Moneymaker tomato cultivar using traditional breeding for enhancing their fruit anthocyanin content. Results of all produced F1 plants of manual hybridization between both cultivars were consistent with the Mendelian inheritance hypothesis. Plants of F2 populations showed a 3:1 Mendelian segregation proportion (75% of plants have anthocyanin pigmentation). Seeds of F2 were individually cultured to get four homozygous lines with anthocyanin accumulation in fruits. The total anthocyanin in the anthocyanin-enriched inbred fruit (3 g/kg DM) represented a relative increase of about 131% of the parent level. The total phenolic compounds in inbred tomato fruits were 54.9 mg/100 g DM referring to a relative increase of about 51% of the respective parent plant. The antioxidant activity of inbred fruit at maturity (m) was 83.5% compared with 91% for TBHQ. The inbred (m) tomato fruit extract reduced the growth of G- bacteria G+ bacteria by 99% and 95%, respectively.