Morpho Molecular Characterization of Tomato Genotypes Under Drought Stress and In-silico Analysis of Drought Related Gene

Abstract

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is a most common and considerable crop grown in most of the countries worldwide including India. The tomato is consumed in diverse forms including raw, as an ingredient in several dishes, sauces, salads, and drinks. Tomato is usually cultivated in the subtropical and mild cold climatic regions and the plant could not strive against frost and high humidity. Production of tomato is known to reduce drastically due to different biotic and abiotic factors. Tomato is highly sensitive to drought stress, resulting in yield losses of up to 79% which is very problematic. The present study has been designed to the research aims that is the morpho-physio-biochemical analysis of seven tomato genotypes under drought stress, genetic diversity analysis using SSRs, and in-silico analysis of drought-related genes of tomato. Morpho-physio-biochemical analysis of seven tomato genotypes under drought stress conditions for the traits i.e., Plant height, Cluster per plant, Flower per cluster, Fruit per plant, Average fruit weight, Yield per plant, Chlorophyll content, TSS Content, Proline content, Catalase activity, Total Phenolics Content has showed that the genotype Arka Rakshak have shown better overall performance under stress when compared to other genotypes and seems to be drought tolerant. Diversity studies of seven tomato genotypes amplified with 10 SSR primers 8 have exhibited polymorphism, the primer named SSR110 has shown the highest number of polymorphic alleles, and the highest PIC value is obtained by SSR-92, TS-2, and TS-5 i. e., 0.32 and 0.31 respectively. SSRs are found to be most efficient in assessing the genetic diversity and in crop improvement programs of tomato genotypes. Further, the in-silico analysis will help to find out the drought- associated genes in tomatoes and their associations with other co-expressed genes. The results obtained during the study will be useful in crop improvement programs