Assessing commercial tomato cultivars for their effects against key arthropod pests

Abstract: Plants use sophisticated mechanisms to defend themselves against herbivory.
Depending on the plant species or cultivar, chemical and mechanical traits can result in different degrees of resistance against a specific herbivorous pest species. Furthermore, different herbivores may differ in the ways they are affected by plant defenses depending on their species, which can be a result of their different feeding modes or mechanisms to withstand effective plant defenses. In this study, we assessed different tomato cultivars which are commercially available in Greece, for their effects on biological traits of key arthropod pests. Specifically, we conducted performance lab experiments which lasted for either 5 days (short-term experiments) or 4 weeks (long-term experiments) after infestation of 12 tomato cultivars with the two spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae, the tomato russet mite Aculops lycopersici, the whitefly Bemisia tabaci, and the tomato leafminer Tuta absoluta. Our results show considerable variation between the different cultivars in their effects on the performance (survival, oviposition, total number of individuals) of each herbivore. Based on these results we were able to conclude on the two most promising cultivars which are currently being assessed for their effects also on the behavior of the above pests. Eventually, we aim to be able to conclude on resistant tomato cultivars which can be used in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs against key tomato pests.