Brown, A. G.
The variety of tomato with suppressed laterals arose as a mutation from Antimold B, a variety immune to races 1, 2 and 9 and resistant to race 5 of Cladosporium fulvum (Cf1 Cf2).
Plants do not produce any shoots from the leaf axils, occasionally the terminal shoot bifurcates, but normally the plants only produce one main stem with leaves and flower trusses in the normal positions for an indeterminate variety. Unfortunately associated with the suppression of lateral shoots are some abnormalities of the flower. The flowers have no petals and are partially male sterile; the small amount of good pollen which is produced is not liberated readily from the anthers. Fruit set is therefore very poor; normal fruits and seeds are, however, produced if the flowers are self-pollinated by hand. The sterility is not due to abnormalities at meiosis but to a breakdown at a later stage.
Lateral suppressor is recessive and segregates in a 3:1 ratio in the F2 when crossed with normal. Plants with suppressed laterals in the F2 from lateral suppressor x normal all have the same type of abnormal flowers, some of which produce badly shaped parthenocarpic fruits freely but none have so far been produced which are fertile.
This variety in fertile form would be a great asset where tomatoes are grown as single stem plants as it would not only greatly reduce the labour involved in cultivation but would reduce the spread of saptransmitted viruses and reduce the incidence of Botrytis.
The name lateral suppressor and symbol ls have been selected for this mutant.