The genetic diversity among Lycopersicon spp. accesses was studied, concerning the resistance to various Tuta absoluta populations. An experiment was carried out using four populations of the insect originally from Uberlândia, Viçosa, Camocim de São Félix and Santa Teresa and five tomato accessions, 'Santa Clara', 'Moneymaker', TOM-601, 'PI 126445' (L. hirsutum f. typicum) and 'PI 134417' (L. hirsutum f. glabratum). Tukey mean comparing test and Tocher grouping were accomplished and the relative importance of T. absoluta characters to the genetic divergence among tomato accessions was evaluated by Singh method. There was genetic variability among tomato accessions when infested by tomato leaf miner populations collected from different regions of Brazil. The 'Santa Clara' accession was most susceptible to Santa Teresa population. 'Moneymaker' and 'TOM-601' were most resistant to Camocim de São Félix and Santa Teresa populations, respectively. 'PI 126445' was most resistant to Santa Teresa and Viçosa populations. 'PI 134417' was most resistance to Viçosa population. 'Moneymaker' and 'TOM-601' can be utilized in breeding programs aiming to obtain tomato plants resistant to the tomato leaf miner. The characteristics that most contributed to the genetic divergence among tomato accessions were larval mortality, female pupae number and male pupae number. The characters larval period and male pupae weight cannot be eliminated in future resistance evaluations to the population tomato leaf miner from Uberlândia.
Lycopersicon spp.; Tuta absoluta; genetic divergence; genetic variability; plant breeding
