Conservation of Genetic Diversity of Tomatoes (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.)

Among the main problems encountered with crop plants, the most important one is represented by genetic erosion. At world level this issue has been debated within the Convention on Biodiversity adopted in UN Conference of Rio de Janeiro and The International Convention regarding Genetic Resources of Plants for Alimentation and Agriculture. In Europe, the regulations in this field are made by the European Directive 98/95 EEC. Across time tomatoes have suffered a heightened process of genetic diversity, phenomenon caused by industrialized farming which is based on the use of very uniform varieties with high productivity. The extension of green agriculture, has led to the use of landraces, because they respond best to the traditional farming systems. In Western Europe organizations of peasants had been founded and, they are involved in different activities aiming at conservation of traditional forms of agriculture and the use of old varieties. In Romania the institutions with continuous preoccupations in the field of vegetal genetic conservation, especially landraces, are the Gene Bank from Suceava and UASMV Cluj-Napoca. By using conservation methods (in situ and ex situ), the genetic erosion surely phenomenon of vegetal genetic resources, implicitly tomatoes, is reduced, the future generations will benefit from valuable genetic resources.