Polygenic Variations and Character Association Study of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicon L.) Genotypes for Yield and Quality Attributes

Abstract

An experiment was conducted in the Vegetable Farm of Bihar Agricultural University in Rabi Season with the objective to study the genetic variability and character association for yield and quality attributes in thirty tomato genotypes. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with three replications. The results indicated significant differences amongst the genotypes for all the characters studied. Yield per plant showed the highest coefficient of variations (56.41 %, 58.93%) at both genotypic and phenotypic level. High genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation was also noted for average fruit weight (48.33%, 48.98%) and number of fruits/plant (35.14%, 33.55%). Traits like average fruit weight (97.4%, 41.85), number of fruits per plant (91.2%, 25.90), and plant height (95.8%, 69.38) exhibited high heritability coupled with high genetic advance. Genetic advance as percentage of mean ranged from 11.81-111.22% for different characters. The highest genetic advance as percentage of mean (111.2%) was recorded for yield per plant. Fruit yield per plant expressed highly significant and positive genotypic and phenotypic correlations with average fruit weight (0.697, 0.694), equatorial diameter (0.637, 0.596) and polar diameter (0.488, 0.454). The genotypes, Hisar Lalit, Pusa Ruby, Arka Alok, Pant T-7 and Pusa Rohini which have been found to be promising with respect to fruit weight and yield per plant may further be exploited to create new genetic variations by random mutation, somaclonal variation and modern molecular techniques for studying disease resistance, post-harvest and processing qualities.