One of the major problems in tomato production is the frequent attack of pests. The use of wild tomato species made it possible to obtain pest resistant genotypes. Such resistance has been linked to the presence of allelochemicals called acylsugars, which are esters of fatty acids. The colorimetric method is normally used to quantify the levels of acylsugars, allowing an indirect selection of genotypes with high content of allelochemicals. This methodology has been used predominantly in the breeding programs of tomato to obtain pest-resistant genotypes. Despite the wide use of the colorimetric method for indirect selection of tomato genotypes with pest resistance, some steps of this methodology take great demand of time. Knowing the importance of the colorimetric method and, attempting to improve the efficiency and standardization of reading, we tried to evaluate new methodologies for quantifying the levels of acylsugars present in tomato leaflets. Among the proposed methods, when using the spectrophotometer Multiskan FC with filter of 620 nm and doses of 100 µL per well (96 wells), we obtained results which were similar to the standard methodology. This methodological approach allowed for greater efficiency in the analysis, repeatability, greater standardization of results reducing the chance of errors during execution, besides the simultaneous analysis of many samples. Concluding, this method is feasible and effective and can be used to quantify acylsugars in tomato leaflets with the purpose of indirect selection of resistant genotypes to pests.
Solanum pennellii; colorimetric method; pests; indirect selection
