Influence of parental background on growth, fruit size and shelf life in F1 NIL Sletr1-2 tomatoes

Sletr1-2 is a tomato mutant known for its extended fruit shelf life, making it a valuable genetic resource for plant breeding programs. However, its small fruit size limits its commercial viability. To address this limitation, NIL Sletr1-2 has been developed, integrating the long shelf-life trait of Sletr1-2 with improved fruit size, offering new opportunities for commercial tomato production and genetic improvement. The objective of this study was to identify and characterize the growth, and fruit shelf life of three generations of F1 NIL-Sletr1-2 tomatoes generation. NIL Sletr1-2 tomatoes were crossed with three commercial tomato varieties, namely Costoluto, Oxheart, and Sart Roloise to obtain the F1 generation. The results showed that there were differences in growth and yield characteristics of the three generations of F1 NIL Sletr1-2. NIL Sletr1-2 crossed with Oxheart produced the tallest plants and the most flowers, but lower leaf number, while the largest fruit was obtained from NIL Sletr1-2 crossed with Sart Roloise. NIL Sletr1-2 crossed with Sart Roloise and Oxheart had a longer fruit shelf life, which was 6.47 and 6.60 days longer than Costoluto. The addition of exogenous ethylene did not significantly affect the decrease in fruit shelf life of the three F1 NIL Sletr1-2 generations.