Wow! With all those detailed questions you may want to consider investing in Carolyn's book. ;)

Meanwhile, you may want to check out some of these sources. Many more are available but these few bookmarks will get you started.

The Tomato

I Say Tomyto, You Say Tomahto

Tomato History: From Poison to Obsession

Comparison of color indexes for tomato ripening

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Carolyn Male, Ph.D. - 100 Heirloom Tomatoes for the American Garden

And I highly suggest the book I've linked to below, quite available online, as the best book I know of re tomato history. Andy;s book will answer quite a few of your questions.

I briefly looked at the link Dave gave from Wikepedia and there are errors of fact in that entry.

I'm sorry, but while I'd like to help answer your questions there are really too many for me to tackle when I'm trying ASAP to get my new variety blurbs written for listing in the 2009 SSE Yearbook as well as reorganizing my seeds for a seed offer elsewhere.

And any one answer might well require too lengthy an explanation for which I have no time now.

Any questions left unanswered after your thread has been up a while if I have the time I'd be agreeable to trying to answer them as best I could.

I decided to pick just two of your questions and give an answer.

(I read some place, that red tomatoes came from central America and yellow ones Mexico. Or was it the other way around. Or something like that. Please verify this or not.)

Not true.

Tomatoes originated in the highlands primarily of Chile and Peru and there are now about 12 known species. No one knows how they got from S America to Mexico but the ones that reached Mexico were red and that's what the Spaniards took back to Spain with them/ My info says that yellow tomatoes did not appear in the Americas, rather, they originated by mutation in probably Spain where they were then spread to Italy by Priests, thus the original Italian name for the tomato of Pomme D' Oro ( apple of gold), which thru time got shortened to Pomodoro which is generally understood to be a generic name for tomatoes, mostly red, some not

(I also read the first tomatoes that appeared in Europe were probably yellow. Where did those come from?)

I ansered that above. The Spaniards took back red tomatoes and yellow tomatoes are believed to have come from those by spontatous mutation.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Andrew Smith tomato book

1. when did the various colors of tomatoes come into existence?

(yellow, red, black, purple, white, green, pink)

No one can say for certain. Early records indicate there were yellow, red and green tomatoes possibly being used by different Meso-American or South American peoples as you eluded to below. I would add it's still up for debate.

2. How did this happen. On purpose or accidentally?

I assume you mean color changes.

Most of the colors known likely occured as spontaneous mutations. There are a few color variations that occured through cross bredding with different species or induced mutations (irradiation). Sherry is one that was induced.

3. Which colors variations appeared first?

Probably green, red and yellow based on the wild species. Some of the orange colors likely evloved later especially in the Galapogos species. Ask McCain or DrC, they were probably around back then ;)

4. Which colors have the most recessive traits?

A true green fruit like Green Giant probably has the most recessive traits for color. That would be "gr" for green flesh + "r" for yellow trait + "y" for clear skin (gr/gr,r/r,y/y) Green fruit require 2 separate genes to be homozygous for that flesh trait, green flesh and yellow. The skin is either clear (which is recessive) or yellow (dominate).

There have been similar recessives (yellow trait, apricot fruit, high pigment and maybe colorless skin) made but they do not exist in the trade.

5. Is there any relationship between color of the tomato and climate it prefers?

Most no. However the trait like Aft (anthocynin or true purple fruit) are expressed more in bright light and cooler temperatures. Aft lines have not really hit the market yet.

6. Is there any relationship between color and vine length?

Generally no. However there are certain exceptions. Short determinate vines are determined by a separate gene called "self-pruning" (what people refer to as "determinate"). This gene (sp) sits close on the same chromosome (6) as one of the genes for orange color called "Beta". When genes are close together they are often refered to as being "linked" as they most often show up together but are still independent of each other. "Beta" is an introduced gene to normal tomatoes. It was bred into regular tomatoes and can be found in the variety "caro-Rich". The linkage of "sp" and "B" was broken and Caro-Rich plants are indeterminate. But typically plants with the Beta gene are determinate.

There is another exception however the gene doesn't form the fruit color rather it makes the fruit color (whether it be red or orange) more intense by increasing the amount of that coloration pigment. These are the "hp" genes (high pigment1 and 2) and the dark green "dg" gene. In the seedling stage these plants can be stunted compared to normal and seed germination is poor. However once the surviving plants start growing there is little size difference. They just tend to be...

Ask McCain or DrC, they were probably around back then ;)

****

I can't speak for McCain and we'll leave politics out of this, but yes, I was around back then (I'm cuurently one of my many reincarnated forms in this existance) and I sat on a hillside in Peru and watched the species evolve. LOL

And it was I in that earlier existance who slogged my way north from S America carrying fruits from some of the species with me and stopped at different areas on the way and upsized the red species I had with me such that when I reached Mexico several thousand years later ( long life was common back then) I had something that was a bit bigger fruit size to work with. ( smile)

Thanks Bob/Mule/Keith for a nice summary in your post. ( smile)

Carolyn,the Eldress, who kept one of the green fruited species such that when she grew it in this life she found out all about the concept of self incompatibiity after talking with Dr. Rick one fine day after Craig had interviewed him for an article in the newsletter Off The Vine that we two were publishing back in the early 90's.

I'm still waiting to see that picture......

You know the one Carolyn....

You riding the dinosaur to school....

Lol

DarJones

I have a minor quibble with Keith's note #8 above "Color is based on pigments which are derived from chlorophyll (the stuff that makes plants green). The chlorophyll is changed by genes into pigments called caretenoids." Chlorophyll and carotenoids share some parts of the biochemical pathway, but it is not quite as simple as this statement infers.