Hybrid tomato variety 72-016 RZ

1. A tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) plant designated 72-016 RZ, representative seed of which having been deposited under NCIMB Accession No. 43551.

2. A seed of the plant of claim 1 .

3. A seed which produces the plant of claim 1 .

4. A part of the plant of claim 1 , wherein said part comprises a microspore, pollen, an ovary, an ovule, or an egg cell.

5. A part of the plant of claim 1 , wherein said part of the plant is involved in vegetative reproduction.

6. A part as claimed in claim 5 , said part comprises a cutting, a root, a stem, a cell, or a protoplast.

7. A tissue culture of regenerable cells from the tomato plant of claim 1 .

8. The cell or protoplast of claim 6 derived from a leaf, pollen, a cotyledon, a hypocotyl, a meristematic cell, a root, a root tip, an anther, a flower, a seed, or a stem.

9. A method for producing a progeny plant of a tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) plant of claim 1 , comprising crossing the plant of claim 1 with itself or with another Solanum lycopersicum plant, harvesting the resultant seed, and growing said seed.

10. A method of producing an inbred tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) plant derived from hybrid tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) variety 72-016 RZ, comprising the steps:

a) preparing a progeny plant derived from hybrid tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) variety 72-016 RZ by crossing the plant of claim 1 with itself or a second Solanum lycopersicum plant;

b) crossing the progeny plant with itself to produce a seed of a progeny plant of a subsequent generation;

c) growing a progeny plant of a subsequent generation from said seed and crossing the progeny plant of a subsequent generation with itself; and

d) repeating step b) or c) for at least 3 more generations to produce an inbred Solanum lycopersicum plant derived from the hybrid tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) variety 72-016 RZ.

11. A method of producing a tomato fruit comprising: (a) obtaining a plant according to claim 1 , wherein the plant has been cultivated to develop fruit; and (b) collecting a tomato fruit from the plant.

12. A fruit produced by the method of claim 11 .

13. A food product comprising the fruit of claim 12 .

14. A method for producing a seed of a 72-016 RZ-derived tomato plant comprising (a) crossing a plant of tomato variety 72-016 RZ, representative seed of which having been deposited under NCIMB Accession No. 43551, with itself or a second tomato plant, and (b) whereby seed of a 72-016 RZ-derived tomato plant forms.

15. The method of claim 14 further comprising (c) crossing a plant grown from 72-016 RZ-derived tomato seed with itself or with a second tomato plant to yield additional 72-016 RZ-derived tomato seed, (d) growing the additional 72-016 RZ-derived tomato seed of step (c) to yield additional 72-016 RZ-derived tomato plants, and (e) repeating the crossing and growing of steps (c) and (d) for an additional 3-10 generations to generate further 72-016 RZ-derived tomato plants.

16. A method of introducing a desired trait into a parent plant of hybrid tomato variety 72-016 RZ comprising:

a) crossing a parent plant of hybrid tomato variety 72-016 RZ, representative seed of which having been deposited under NCIMB Accession No. 43551 with a second Solanum lycopersicum plant that comprises the desired trait to produce F1 progeny;

(b) selecting an F1 progeny that comprises the desired trait;

(c) crossing the selected F1 progeny with said parent plant of tomato variety 72-016 RZ, to produce backcross progeny and

(d) selecting backcross progeny comprising the desired trait and the physiological and morphological characteristics of said parent plant of tomato variety 72-016 RZ, when grown in the same environmental conditions.

17. The method of claim 16 further comprising: (e) repeating steps (c) and (d) one or more times in succession to produce selected fourth or higher backcross progeny that comprises the desired trait and all of the physiological and morphological characteristics of said parent plant of tomato variety 72-016 RZ, when grown in the same environmental conditions.

18. The method of claim 16 wherein the parent plant is obtained by reverse breeding.

19. A method of determining the genotype of a plant of tomato variety 72-016 RZ, representative seed of which has been deposited under NCIMB Accession No. 43551, or a first generation progeny thereof, comprising obtaining a sample of nucleic acids from said plant and comparing said nucleic acids to a sample of nucleic acids obtained from a reference plant, and detecting a plurality of polymorphisms between the two nucleic acid samples, wherein the plurality of polymorphisms are indicative of tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) variety 72-016 RZ and/or give rise to the expression of any one or more, or all, of the morphological and physiological characteristics of tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum ) variety 72-016 RZ as claimed in claim 1 .

20. The method of claim 19 additionally comprising the step of storing the results of detecting the plurality of polymorphisms on a computer readable medium or transmitting the results of detecting the plurality of polymorphisms.

21. A part of the plant of claim 1 , wherein said part comprises pollen.