Molecular evolution of pathogen defence in wild tomato species.

Understanding adaptation of plants to pathogens is of vital importance to create durable resistance in crops. Therefore, we are interested in understanding the evolution of pathogen resistance in relatively short time scales. We study different populations from a diverse and geographically differentiated tomato species, Solanum chilense. We have shown that populations show different levels of defence against a range of pathogens and patterns of differential selection for defence-associated genes. We now want to link these observation to the molecular defence mechanisms involved.