Enhancement of post harvest fruit quality and leaf curl disease tolerance in tomato through hybrid breeding

Abstract

Development of hybrids tolerant to leaf curl virus disease along with good post harvest/processing traits is the major thrust areas in tomato breeding now-a-days. A study was undertaken following 7 × 7 half diallel mating design utilizing four exotic and three indigenous lines to identify potential donors and crosses, to study the extent of heterobeltiosis and dominance behaviour, and to assess the genetic control of post harvest quality traits along with disease tolerance in tomato. Breeding strategies to improve characters governed by different types of gene action are discussed. Two parental lines, CLN 2777F and CLN 2777E could be utilized further in tomato breeding programme as they were identified as the most promising general combiners for fruit yield, processing quality and ToLCV tolerance. The maximum extent of heterobeltiosis (104.17%) was found in pericarp thickness followed by fruit yield plant-1 (63.57 %) and PDI of ToLCV disease (-60.00 %). The hybrids also exhibited various degrees of dominance effects. The study could also able to identify a promising cross ‘CLN 2777E × CLN 2777F’ which could be recommended for commercial exploitation after critical study in leaf curl disease prone areas of the tropics and sub-tropics.