27 Molecular mapping of the Am gene conferring resistance to Alfalfa Mosaic Virus (AMV) in tomato 1 Parrella G . , 2 Moretti, A . , 3 Gognalons, P . , 3 Marchoux, G . , 3 Gebre - Selassié K . and 2 Caranta C . 1 CNR - CEVICOM, 70126 Bari, Italy; 2 INRA - UGAFL, Dom . St . Maurice, BP94, 84143 Montfavet, France, 3 INRA - Pathologie Végétale, Dom . St . Maurice, BP94, 84143 Montfavet, France E - mail : Carole . Caranta@avignon . inra . fr Am is a dominant gene derived from Lycopersicon hirsutum f . glabratum PI134417 conferring resistance to necrotic and non necrotic isolates of Alfalfa mosaic virus (AMV), belonging to subgroup I and II (Parrella et al . , 1998; Parrella et al . , 2000) . With the aim to identify molecular markers linked to the Am gene, 'bulked segregant analysis' (BSA) (Michelmore et al . , 1991) combined with AFLP markers (Vos et al . , 1995) were applied to a set of 120 BC1 plants between the susceptible L . hirsutum accession PI 247087 and the resistant accession PI134417 . The same BC1 plants were evaluated for resistance/susceptibility after mechanical inoculation with the AMV strain Lye - 80 .   Among the 109 Hind III - Mse I primer combinations (primers with three selective nucleotides) screened on the susceptible and resistant DNA pools, five were found to produce AFLP markers linked at less than 10 cM from the Am gene (Fig . 1) . One primer combination (H35/M47) detecting the same polymorphism (fragment with the same molecular weight) between the parental lines of the L . hirsutum introgression lines population (Monforte and Tanksley 2001) and L . hirsutum PI134417 and PI247087 was used to assign the Am gene to a tomato chromosome . Three introgression lines, carrying a L . hirsutum fragment belonging to the chromosome 6 (IL - TA1559, IL - TA1546 and IL - TA1545) showed polymorphism suggesting that the Am is located to the tomato chromosome 6 . In order to confirm the map location of Am , RFLP analysis with 3 tomato probes from the tomato chromosome 6 (TG352, TG232 and CT21) was conducted on the 120 BC1 plants . The Am gene was mapped on the short arm of the chromosome 6, 3 cM distal to CT21 and TG232, in the cluster of dominant resistant genes including Mi , Meu , Cf - 2 , Cf - 9 , Ol - 1 and the major effect QTLs Ty - 1 and Bw - 5 . Literature cited :   Michelmore R . W . , I . Paran, R . V . Kesseli, 1991 . Proc . Natl . Acad . Sci . USA, 88:9828 - 9832 . Monforte A . J . and   S . D . Tanksley, 2001 . Theor . Appl . Genet . , in press . Parrella G . , H . Laterrot, K . Gebre Selassie, G . Marchoux, 1998 . Jour . of Plant Path . , 80:241 - 243 . Parrella G . , C . Lanave, G . Marchoux, M . M . Finetti Sialer, A . DI Franco, D . Gallitelli, 2000 . Arch . of Virol . , 145:2659 - 2667 . Figure 1 on next page