Abstract
Parental lines, F1 generation of domesticated tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) and Lycopersicon pimpinellifolium L. were evaluated at Department of Crop Science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka for improvement in their quantitative traits. The experiment was laid out in a randomized com- plete block design with three replications. Data were collected on the quantitative traits and fruit yield. Better Parent Heterosis (BPH), genetic variances, gene effects and heritability of the traits were estimated for the hybrids. BPH result showed that the Wild × Petomech cross had the highest positive BPH of 358.36% in fruit yield. The highest negative BPH of −95.59% was recorded for the hybrid, Wild × Grosso in average fruit weight while the hybrid, Insulata × Grosso had the lowest negative BPH of −16.27% in average fruit weight. Additive gene action and additive × additive gene action (aa) were significantly in control of three crosses, W × P, W × In and W × G in fruit yield. Additive variance was higher than dominance variance in fruit yield for all the hybrids with wild as one of its parents. Again, hybrids with wild as one of its parent as, W × G, W × In, and W × P had the highest narrow sense heritability in fruit yield (59.15%, 51.69%, 59.88%, respectively). High level of epistasis controlled some of the quantitative traits and hybridization evidenced by the result was effective in developing new tomato cultivars with positive heterotic effects in fruit yield.
Highlights
The domestication and improvement of crops through breeding have been highly effective in concentrating allelic variation that confers useful characteristics for cultivation and consumption [1]
Estimates of Better Parent Heterosis (BPH) of the agronomic, yield, yield component traits showed that, negative BPH was recorded in number of flowers/truss for all the crosses with W × G having the lowest negative value of –35.6% while G × P had lower negative BPH value of −4.82% (Table 1)
The highest negative BPH of −95.59% was recorded for the hybrid, W × G for average fruit weight while the hybrid In × G had the lowest negative average fruit weight of −16.27%
Summary
The domestication and improvement of crops through breeding have been highly effective in concentrating allelic variation that confers useful characteristics for cultivation and consumption [1]. The objective of hybridization in breeding self-pollinated crops, is to combine in a single genotype genes that are found in two or more different genotypes [2]. Hybrid tomato usually produces higher yield, they generally mature earlier and more uniformly [3]. Hybrid plants are usually heavy producers, and they combine the character of the parent plants. Many hybrids have better fruit quality and disease resistance. Resistance genotype should possess other desirable economic traits to make them viable at commercial level [4]. Previous studies have suggested that increasing genetic distances (variability) between parents, increases heterosis [5] [6]
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