Improving Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) Resilience to Heat and Waterlogging through Breeding and Grafting Approaches

Abstract

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), a globally important crop, suffers significant yield losses under hot and wet environmental conditions. High temperatures cause poor pollen viability, sunscald, flower drop, and reduced fruit set. Excess water leads to oxygen deficiency, root damage, and plant mortality. This review assesses Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) Resilience to Heat and Waterlogging Through Breeding and Grafting Approaches. Both additive and non-additive genetic effects play a role in developing tolerance to these stresses. Hybrids such as BGH-0025 × BGH-0468 and Nagcarlang LA-2661 perform well under high temperatures, showing better fruit set and yield. In waterlogged conditions, grafting onto eggplant rootstocks like Arka Nilkanth and tomato lines L 150 and L 191 enhances survival, recovery and fruit production. Combining conventional breeding with grafting improves resilience in hot-wet climates. Emphasis on traits like fruit quality, stress tolerance and rootstock compatibility can lead to more sustainable tomato production. High-throughput phenotyping and molecular tools can further accelerate the development of climate-resilient cultivars. The study recommended accelerating the breeding process by leveraging advancements in technology, such as high-throughput phenotyping for identifying promising heat-tolerant tomato lines. Moreover, breeding can be implemented for better rootstock to boost grafting success and resilience in hot-wet conditions.