Mapping of Ve in tomato: A gene conferring resistance to the broad-spectrum pathogen, Verticillium dahliae race 1

The soil-borne fungi Verticillium spp. cause vascular wilt disease in a wide range of crop plants. In tomato, resistance to Verticillium dahliae race 1 is conferred by a single dominant gene, Ve. Previous efforts to map Ve in tomato have yielded confusing results, locating it on different chromosomes, which subsequently raised the possibility that Verticillium resistance may be controlled by a number of loci. We used three different mapping populations to obtain an unambiguous map location of Ve: a recombinant inbred (RI) line population; an F₂ population segregating for Verticillium resistance; and a population of 50 introgression lines (IL). In all of the mapping populations Ve was positioned on the short arm of chromosome 9 tightly linked to the RFLP marker GP39. This linkage was confirmed by screening for GP39 in different breeding lines with known resistance or susceptibility to Verticillium. A perfect match was found between GP39 and the Verticillium response of the lines, indicating the potential of GP39 in the rapid detection of Verticillium resistance and as a starting point for map-based cloning of Ve. This approach is particularly relevant for Verticillium dahliae race 1, since in the present work we also show that the isolate that infects tomato is responsible for wilt disease in other important crop plants.