Revolutionizing the tomato cultivation: advances and frontiers in virus-resistant tomato breeding.

A systematic review compares conventional R-gene pyramiding (Ty, Sw, Tm), RNA interference transgenics, and CRISPR/Cas editing for virus-resistant tomato breeding, adding Amalgavirus countermeasures.

• Why it matters: Tomato viruses from Crinivirus, Begomovirus, Tobamovirus, and Potyvirus reduce crop quality and yield, while many resistance genes are qualitative and vulnerable to new viruses, recombination, and mixed infections.
• What they did: The review synthesizes how three antiviral breeding strategies can be combined in tomato, and extends the framework by incorporating Amalgavirus escape countermeasures such as synthetic NLR decoys and Cas13-mediated transcriptional degradation.
• The result: It concludes with difficulties and recommendations for future improvements in tomato antiviral breeding, implying these strategies and countermeasures may help address qualitative-resistance limitations.