Crop: Solanum lycopersicum L. (Tomato)
The landrace 'Valenciana' is a landrace which holds fruits of extraordinary organoleptic quality. The fruits have small locules distributed in a regular way around a heart of circular section and large dimensions, which give it great firmness and fleshiness. In the last five years, this traditional variety has had a very important economic projection, with an annual commercialized production of more than 1,200,000 kg. To contribute to the valorization of this variety it is necessary to carry out a morphological and agronomic characterization that allows its classification as a unique, differentiated and quality product (Escrivá et al., 2010).
On the other hand, in the 'Valenciana' type, as well as in other traditional tomato landraces, it is patent the instability of yields due to the high incidence of diseases. For this reason, it is important to improve this variety by introgressing genes of resistance, specially to viruses such as the Tomato mosaic virus (ToMV) (Soler et al., 2010; García-Martínez et al., 2013).
Cultivation System: open field and greenhouse with drip irrigation.
Geographical Information
Country: Spain
The landrace 'Valenciana' is the most appreciated in the regions near the City of Valencia. This variety is genuine of the so-called ‘Plana de Valencia’ which includes the riverbanks of the rivers Jucar, Turia and Palancia and very specifically in the so-called ‘Huerta de la Ciudad de Valencia’.
Farmer(s) description:
The 'Valenciana' landrace holds three fruit shapes in the same plant. The most predominant one is the so-called ‘masclet’, its shape identifies the variety unequivocally (Díez et al., 2017; Figás et al., 2017a; 2017b). It consists on heart-shaped pointed fruits at the blossom end. These are the fruits that reach a higher price on the market. Other types of fruits are named ‘femella’. They are slightly flattened-heart shaped fruits, with indented or flat blossom end shape and with open pistilar scar. This fruit type, different from the ‘masclet’ reach lower prices on the marker. The third type of fruits is the called ‘rollo’. They are flattened-misshapen fruits coming from a fasciated flower usually developed from the first flower of each truss (Figás et al., 2017a).
The landrace 'Valenciana' is characterized by its exceptional organoleptic quality. Usually the varieties with higher frequency of ‘masclet’ fruits, with small locules regularly distributed around a large circular heart, are more appreciated (Figás et al., 2015a). This specific characteristic confers a high firmness and fleshiness. Despite this, the 'Valenciana' variety as well as other traditional varieties suffer of yield instability, not only due to its susceptibility to diseases, but to an irregular fruit set (Soler et al., 2010). In this sense, research is ongoing to study in detail the pattern of fruit set and the selection for the patterns of fruit set that allow production during a longer period (Figás et al., 2017a).
Propagation system: Seed, self-pollination
Multiplication procedures and consequences on landrace diversity:As most tomato varieties, the 'Valenciana' landrace is predominantly autogamous. However, the dehiscence of the anthers cone has been observed leading to a certain degree of cross-pollination. Growers use to do a mass selection in the populations they grown and exchange seeds with other farmers. All together, these practices lead to an increase of the genetic variability in the cultivated populations. Thus, from some populations cultivated in certain areas, it has been possible to select lines that differ both in their morphological characteristics, their fruit set sequence and their potential yield (Figás et al., 2017a; 2017b).
Management plan existence:The use of morphological, agronomic and quality descriptors as well as phenomic tools such as the Tomato Analyzer software, have allowed the discrimination of the 'Valenciana' landrace from other similar traditional varieties both at national and European level (Figás et al., 2015a; 2015b; Pons et al., 2017). The genotyping carried out with the 'Valenciana' landrace is contributing to its valorization and its use in breeding programs or in its certified use in markets of high-quality products. The determination of the specific haplotype of the 'Valenciana' type is helping in solving misclassifications (Pons et al., 2017).
Added Values
The 'Valenciana' landrace is marketed fresh as a high quality product, especially in the central regions of the Valencia province. Currently, there is an upward trend in the area under cultivation and efforts are being made to consolidate its marketing outside the Valencian Community.
Others (e.g. commercial/geographical brands or special traits):Tomata Valenciana’ of the L’Horta, Camp del Turia, Ribera Alta, Ribera Baixa and Alt Palància regions. The objectives of this association are: to get the authorization of the use of the quality mark CV of the Generalitat Valenciana for the 'Tomata Valenciana’, promote their cultivation as well as expand the geographic scope of marketing. To carry out these activities we have the sponsorship of the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), as well as the knowledge generated by the agronomic and genetic improvement studies carried out by different research groups of the UPV.
The Associació de Productors i Comercialitzadors de la Tomata Valenciana is supported by the government of the Generalitat Valenciana, through subsidies for both, the promotion of the 'Tomata Valenciana' product and for the financing of projects with public research centers such as the Universitat Politècnica de València.
The 'on farm' conservation of the variety is guaranteed, taking into account the upward trend of the cultivated area and the fact that the farmers have created an association to promote the cultivation of this traditional variety and its launch in the market. Most part of cultivars grown by farmers have been collected and hold at the genebank of the Universitat Politècnica de València.
The genebank of the Universitat Politècnica de València (https://www.comav.upv.es/) holds an important collection of this landrace (132 accessions) (Díez et al., 2017). They are available upon request.
Case study provided by Departamento de Biotecnología de la Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), València, Spain.
To the members of the Cooperativa Valenciana Unió Protectora d’El Perello, in particular Mr. Esteve Martínez Serrano, who provided lots of information on this landrace through the last five years.
- Díez, M. J., Valcárcel, J.V., Torres, J., Granell, A., Prohens, J., Soler S. 2017. Variedades tradicionales de tomate de la Comunidad Valenciana del banco de germoplasma del comav. In: I Congrés de la Tomata Valenciana: La Tomata Valenciana d’El Perelló. Universitat Politècnica de València, pp. 85-96.
- García- Martínez, S., Alonso, A., Rubio, F., Grau, A., Valero, M., Ruiz, J.J. 2013. Nuevas líneas de mejora de tomate Muchamiel resistentes a virus obtenidas en el programa de mejora genética de la EPSO-UMH. VII Congreso Ibérico de Agroingeniería y Ciencias Hortícolas, Madrid.
- Escrivà, C., Baviera, A. y Buitrago, J.M. 2010. Marcas de calidad agraria en la Comunidad Valenciana. En: El derecho civil valenciano tras la reforma del estatuto de autonomía. Ed.: Ramón Fernández, F. Tirant. Valencia, España.
- Figàs, M.R., Martín, A., Casanova, C., Soler, E., Prohens, J., S. Soler. 2017a. Estudi de la distribució de quallat en distintes seleccions masals de la ‘Tomaca Valenciana d’El Perelló’. In: I Congrés de la Tomata Valenciana: La Tomata Valenciana d’El Perelló. Universitat Politècnica de València, pp. 73-83.
- Figàs, M.R., Martín, A., Casanova, C., Soler, E., Prohens, J., S. Soler. 2017b. Millora genètica de la Tomaca ‘Valenciana d’El Perelló’ per a resistència al virus del mosaic de la tomaca (Tomato mosaic virus, TOMV). In: I Congrés de la Tomata Valenciana: La Tomata Valenciana d’El Perelló. Universitat Politècnica de València, pp. 115-127.
- Figàs, M.R., Prohens, J., Raigón, M.D., Fernández-de-Córdova, P., Fita, A., Soler S. 2015a. Characterization of a collection of local varieties of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) using conventional descriptors and the high-throughput phenomics tool Tomato Analyzer. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 62:189–204.
- Figàs, M. R., Prohens, J., Raigón, M. D., Fita, A., García-Martínez, M. D., Casanova, C., Soler, S. (2015b). Characterization of composition traits related to organoleptic and functional quality for the differentiation, selection and enhancement of local varieties of tomato from different cultivar groups. Food Chemistry, 187, 517-524.
- Pons, C., Monforte, A. J., Figàs, M. R., Soler, S., Blanca, J., Diez, M. J., Prohens, J., Granell, A. 2017. La tomata ‘Valenciana d’El Perelló’: comparació de les seues característiques genètiques i fenotípiques amb el conjunt de tomates tradicionals europees. In: I Congrés de la Tomata Valenciana: La Tomata Valenciana d’El Perelló. Universitat Politècnica de València, pp. 141-152.
- Soler, S., Prohens, J., López, C., Aramburu, J., Galipienso, L. y Nuez, F. 2010. Viruses infecting tomato in Valencia, Spain: occurence, distribution and effect of seed origin. Journal of Phytopathology, 158: 797-805.