Disease resistant tomato plants

1. A method for introgressing at least one allele associated with resistance to Botrytis cinerea at a quantitative trait locus contributing to resistance to Botrytis cinerea into a tomato plant lacking said allele, comprising:

a) obtaining a first tomato plant which exhibits Botrytis cinerea resistance, wherein said resistance is associated with at least one QTL or a functional part thereof capable of directing or controlling expression of said resistance to Botrytis cinerea , wherein said QTL or a functional part thereof is genetically located on chromosome 6 between marker loci NT1293 and NT3736 as represented in Fig.2 , which co-segregates with the Botrytis resistance trait and can be identified in a PCR reaction by at least two pairs of PCR oligonucleotide primers comprising:

i. forward primer of SEQ ID NO: 1 and reverse primer of SEQ ID NO: 2, and

ii. forward primer of SEQ ID NO: 3 and reverse primer of SEQ ID NO: 4;

b) crossing said first tomato plant with a second tomato plant, wherein said second tomato plant lacks said allele; and

c) identifying a plant resulting from the cross exhibiting increased resistance to Botrytis cinerea comprising detecting said QTL or a functional part thereof genetically located on chromosome 6 between marker loci NT1293 and NT3736 as represented in Fig.2 using oligonucleotides that are genetically linked to said QTL or functional part thereof on chromosome 6 between markers NT1293 and NT3736 and co-segregate with Botrytis cinerea resistance;

d) optionally, isolating said plant; and

e) optionally, back-crossing said plant with the first or second tomato plant.

2. A method for producing a tomato plant exhibiting resistance to Botrytis cinerea , comprising the steps of:

a) selecting a plant of the genus Solanum, which exhibits Botrytis cinerea resistance, wherein said resistance is associated with at least one QTL or a functional part thereof capable of directing or controlling expression of said resistance to Botrytis cinerea , wherein said QTL or a functional part thereof is genetically located on chromosome 6 between marker loci NT1293 and NT3736 as represented in Fig.2 , which co-segregates with the Botrytis resistance trait and can be identified in a PCR reaction by at least two pairs of PCR oligonucleotide primers comprising:

i. forward primer of SEQ ID NO: 1 and reverse primer of SEQ ID NO: 2 , and

ii. forward primer of SEQ ID NO: 3 and reverse primer of SEQ ID NO: 4;

b) crossing said plant of step a), which exhibits Botrytis cinerea resistance, with a tomato plant, which is susceptible to Botrytis cinerea or exhibits an intermediate level of resistance against Botrytis cinerea and

c) selecting a progeny from said cross which exhibits Botrytis resistance comprising detecting said QTL or a functional part thereof genetically located on chromosome 6 between marker loci NT1293 and NT3736 as represented in Fig.2 using oligonucleotides that are genetically linked to said QTL or functional part thereof on chromosome 6 between markers NT1293 and NT3736 and co-segregate with Botrytis cinerea resistance.

3. A method for obtaining tomato fruits resistant to Botrytis cinerea comprising the steps of;

a) selecting a plant of the genus Solanum , which exhibits Botrytis cinerea resistance, wherein said resistance is associated with at least one QTL or a functional part thereof capable of directing or controlling expression of said resistance to Botrytis cinerea , wherein said QTL or a functional part thereof is genetically located on chromosome 6 between marker loci NT1293and NT3736 as represented in Fig.2 , which co-segregates with the Botrytis resistance trait and can be identified in a PCR reaction by at least two pairs of PCR oligonucleotide primers comprising:

i. forward primer of SEQ ID NO: 1 and reverse primer of SEQ ID NO: 2, and

ii. forward primer of SEQ ID NO: 3 and reverse primer of SEQ ID NO: 4 ;

b)crossing said plant of step a), which exhibits Botrytis cinerea resistance, with a tomato plant, which is susceptible to Botrytis cinerea or exhibits an intermediate level of resistance against Botrytis cinerea ;

[b] c) selecting a progeny plant from said cross which exhibits Botrytis resistance comprising detecting said QTL or a functional part thereof genetically located on chromosome 6 between marker loci NT1293 and NT3736 as represented in Fig.2 using oligonucleotides that are genetically linked to said QTL or functional part thereof on chromosome 6 between markers NT1293 and NT3736 and co-segregate with Botrytis cinerea resistance;

[c] d) sowing a seed of the progeny plant of [b] c); and

[d] e) growing said progeny plant in order to produce fruit and harvesting the fruits produced by said plant.