Estimation of combining ability analysis in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) for yield, nutritional and processing quality improvement

Abstract

Combining ability for yield and nutritional quality traits in tomato were studied by involving 28 cross combi-nations obtained from crossing 8 diverse lines in diallel mating fashion. Based on GCA effects of parents, the varie-ties Pant T-3, Arka Alok and Sel-7 were good general combiners for most of the traits under study. The crosses viz., Pant T-3 x H-24 (1.052%), Arka Meghali x Punjab Chhuhara (0.768%) and H-88-78-1 x Azad T-5 (0.768%) were found to be high positive specific combining ability effect for yield per plant. For quality traits, the crosses Arka Me-ghali x Punjab Chhuhara and H-24 x Sel-7 were also superior specific combiner for number of seeds per fruit and ascorbic acid, while cross Punjab Chhuhara x H-88-78-1 was superior specific combiner for number of seeds per fruit (24.165%), yield per plant (0.677%) and titrable acidity (0.183%). These elite hybrids may be tested for yield and other quality traits under different agro-climatic conditions for commercial exploitation of hybrid vigour.