Post by Tom Wagner on Jan 7, 2011 23:51:48 GMT -8
I am a breeder of tomatoes and the diversity of genes that are in my creations have to come from somewhere. The gs gene is ubiquitous now, note the small caps which indicated recessive? Where did I get the first start for it?
If you have read this far, then just maybe you want to know.
It did not come from Tigerella...it did not come from the Tomato Genetics Resource Center at University of California, Davis, even though I have mentioned that it may have come from the Gulf State Market tomato, but my records of the actual plot number is buried in my archives of near 1,000 lbs of plot maps, breeding journals, and gathered literature.
I was breeding tomatoes for quite a few years before I made a trip to the Tomato Collections near Ames, Iowa. Years later they moved the collections to Geneva, NY, by the way. Anyway I met with the curator there and took a tour of the facility during the tomato season, marveled at the many jars of seed on shelves and walked the tomato fields where the accessions that were of short supply were being increased with a few as 6 to 10 plants. The curator told me that many of the lines were of mixed purity obviously, but they bulked the increased seed regardless, not knowing if they should be doing any selection or elimination. After an hour of looking at several hundred lines of tomatoes, the curator left me to my own wits to observe each and everyone of the accessions. My thoughts were: Boring! They all look much alike, but you could tell there was a lot of variety mix-up, accidental crossings, or whatever. I made selections of a single fruits of about a dozen types that caught my eye, or were just random picks. I made notes to the accession number or plot number.
Cutting to the chase, I sighted one vine that had red tomatoes with a slight yellow stripe. It was not dramatic in hindsight, but I was looking anything out of the ordinary so that I could use it in breeding.
Growing out the striped tomato the next season at the farm home, near Lancaster, KS, I made crosses with the tomato with just about every other variety or cross I had at the time. The cross to Red Cherry produced a large cherry tomato with a very faint stripe....I could see it better on the unripe fruits better than the ripe ones. Selfing that hybrid out produced the variety I called CHERRY STRIPE, but it never had really vivid stripes...no better than the first collection from Ames. But as I crossed and crossed, selfed and selfed, I was able to get an increase in the number of stripes from just a few to many, from faint to vivid. I don't know even to this day if I had a mutation or what that provided me with an enhanced gs.
If what I had was a translocation or a doubling of the gs gene with a re-attached arm that carried the gene.....I simply don't know. I was trying to answer my own questions during my study for a degree in Botany with graduate level classes in cytogenetics, but to no avail.
As I continued to breed with the better stripe types, the genesis of the trait was put into the clones of Banana Legs, Green Nails, Green Bell Pepper Tomato, Schimmeig Creg, Schimmeig Stoo, Brown Derby (Striped), Elberta Girl, and many more too numerous to mention. Oh, and Green Zebra.
WBF, Brad Gates's Wild Boar Farms, and Jeff Dawson have helped create dozens of accidental crosses that propelled the advance of striped tomato clones out of my Green Zebra. Brad will admit that Green Zebra not only provided the stripe but some of the complex flavors of his named cultivars.
Dawson had natural crosses of Green Zebra and Marvel Stripe to get the Black Zebra, Copia, and the Marv series.
John Swenson of the Historic Wagner Farm, (no relation) got ahold of one of lines back before my Tater Mater catalog and named it Banana Legs, and natural crosses of it to Antique Roman created the series of Striped Roman, Roman Holiday, Roman Candles, etc.
Had I continued with my releases in my Tater Mater Seeds catalog as I had done from 1983 through 1987, I would have had similar types such as Brad's, John's, and Jeff's work.
Many others have made selections out of mostly accidental crosses and more recently some purposeful crosses of Green Zebra and the other stripes. In so many ways I am happy that has happened. At different times in the past, I have thought that my work should be released with a bit more fanfare such as plant patents, royalties, working with the bigger seed companies, but that is another story. As I become more of a proponent of OPEN SOURCE sharing of seed, I must find other rationales for submitting varieties to the public
My version of the gs gene, if it is different somehow, has been worked on for most of the 60's, all of the 70's, 80's, 90's, 00's and now in the 10's.
I am compiling a list of many of my striped tomato varieties that have not been publicized as yet. It is taking me many nights to look through the thousands of clones that I have named or yet to name. Some are taking on fanciful names like Mukilteo Lighthouse, largely because of where I may have been when showing someone some of my newer creations.
Tom Wagner
If you have read this far, then just maybe you want to know.
It did not come from Tigerella...it did not come from the Tomato Genetics Resource Center at University of California, Davis, even though I have mentioned that it may have come from the Gulf State Market tomato, but my records of the actual plot number is buried in my archives of near 1,000 lbs of plot maps, breeding journals, and gathered literature.
I was breeding tomatoes for quite a few years before I made a trip to the Tomato Collections near Ames, Iowa. Years later they moved the collections to Geneva, NY, by the way. Anyway I met with the curator there and took a tour of the facility during the tomato season, marveled at the many jars of seed on shelves and walked the tomato fields where the accessions that were of short supply were being increased with a few as 6 to 10 plants. The curator told me that many of the lines were of mixed purity obviously, but they bulked the increased seed regardless, not knowing if they should be doing any selection or elimination. After an hour of looking at several hundred lines of tomatoes, the curator left me to my own wits to observe each and everyone of the accessions. My thoughts were: Boring! They all look much alike, but you could tell there was a lot of variety mix-up, accidental crossings, or whatever. I made selections of a single fruits of about a dozen types that caught my eye, or were just random picks. I made notes to the accession number or plot number.
Cutting to the chase, I sighted one vine that had red tomatoes with a slight yellow stripe. It was not dramatic in hindsight, but I was looking anything out of the ordinary so that I could use it in breeding.
Growing out the striped tomato the next season at the farm home, near Lancaster, KS, I made crosses with the tomato with just about every other variety or cross I had at the time. The cross to Red Cherry produced a large cherry tomato with a very faint stripe....I could see it better on the unripe fruits better than the ripe ones. Selfing that hybrid out produced the variety I called CHERRY STRIPE, but it never had really vivid stripes...no better than the first collection from Ames. But as I crossed and crossed, selfed and selfed, I was able to get an increase in the number of stripes from just a few to many, from faint to vivid. I don't know even to this day if I had a mutation or what that provided me with an enhanced gs.
If what I had was a translocation or a doubling of the gs gene with a re-attached arm that carried the gene.....I simply don't know. I was trying to answer my own questions during my study for a degree in Botany with graduate level classes in cytogenetics, but to no avail.
As I continued to breed with the better stripe types, the genesis of the trait was put into the clones of Banana Legs, Green Nails, Green Bell Pepper Tomato, Schimmeig Creg, Schimmeig Stoo, Brown Derby (Striped), Elberta Girl, and many more too numerous to mention. Oh, and Green Zebra.
WBF, Brad Gates's Wild Boar Farms, and Jeff Dawson have helped create dozens of accidental crosses that propelled the advance of striped tomato clones out of my Green Zebra. Brad will admit that Green Zebra not only provided the stripe but some of the complex flavors of his named cultivars.
Dawson had natural crosses of Green Zebra and Marvel Stripe to get the Black Zebra, Copia, and the Marv series.
John Swenson of the Historic Wagner Farm, (no relation) got ahold of one of lines back before my Tater Mater catalog and named it Banana Legs, and natural crosses of it to Antique Roman created the series of Striped Roman, Roman Holiday, Roman Candles, etc.
Had I continued with my releases in my Tater Mater Seeds catalog as I had done from 1983 through 1987, I would have had similar types such as Brad's, John's, and Jeff's work.
Many others have made selections out of mostly accidental crosses and more recently some purposeful crosses of Green Zebra and the other stripes. In so many ways I am happy that has happened. At different times in the past, I have thought that my work should be released with a bit more fanfare such as plant patents, royalties, working with the bigger seed companies, but that is another story. As I become more of a proponent of OPEN SOURCE sharing of seed, I must find other rationales for submitting varieties to the public
My version of the gs gene, if it is different somehow, has been worked on for most of the 60's, all of the 70's, 80's, 90's, 00's and now in the 10's.
I am compiling a list of many of my striped tomato varieties that have not been publicized as yet. It is taking me many nights to look through the thousands of clones that I have named or yet to name. Some are taking on fanciful names like Mukilteo Lighthouse, largely because of where I may have been when showing someone some of my newer creations.
Tom Wagner