ABSTRACT
Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Miller, recently also called Solanum lycopersicum) is one of the most important vegetable crop all over the world and constitutes an important source of human diet. It is grown in practically every country in outdoor fields, green-houses, and net-houses, for fresh market and processing purposes. It ranks second (after potato) among all the vegetables and its worldwide production is approximately 97 million tons (FAO production year book 2001). Tomato belongs to Solanaceae family and its origin is from South America and Mexico. The wild species of tomato are: L. pimpinellifolium, L. cheesmanii, L. peruvianum, L. chilense, L. hirsutum, L. parviflorum, L. chmielewskii and L. pennellii. They are all diploids with 24 chromosomes (2n=24).
