Studies on gene action involved in inheritance for yield and its attributing traits in tomato (<em>Solanum lycopersicum</em> L.)

Abstract

The present study was carried out during Rabi seasons of 2016-17 and 2017-18 at Main Experiment Station of Department of Vegetable Science, Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Narendra Nagar (Kumarganj), Ayodhya (U.P.) India. The experimental materials of the study comprised of 54 treatments of tomato [40 F1’s and 14 parental lines (10 lines viz., NDT-1, NDT-2, NDT-3, NDT-4, NDT-5, NDT-6, NDT-7, NDT-8, Azad T-6, Arka Saurabh and 4 testers viz., Pusa Ruby, Punjab Chhuhara, Arka Vikash and Arka Meghali]. The 14 parents were involved in a crossing programme to develop a line × tester set (10 lines + 4 testers + 40 F1’s). The experimental materials (40 F1’s and 14 parental lines) were evaluated in Randomized Complete Block Design (RBD) with three replication having each experimental unit with spacing of 60cm × 50cm with plot size of 1.2m ×3.0m. The observations were recorded on eighteen characters, viz., days to 50 % flowering, days to first fruit set, days to first fruit harvest, plant height (cm), number of primary branches per plant, number of fruits per cluster, number of fruits per plant, fruit weight per plant (kg), average fruit weight (g), fruit length (cm), fruit girth (cm), number of locules per fruit, pericarp thickness (mm), total soluble solids (TSS), ascorbic acid (mg/100g fresh fruit) total fruit yield per plant (kg). Estimates of sca variance were higher than gca variances for most of the traits except plant height and ascorbic acid in both years and pooled. The value of sca variances were found significant and positive for all the characters except number of primary branches per plant and pericarp thickness in both years, total soluble solids in pooled. Likewise, positive and significant gca variances were also exhibited by almost all the characters except days to 50 % flowering, days to first fruit set, fruit length and total soluble solids in both the years and pooled. Average degree of dominance were more than unity (>1) for the characters like plant height, number of fruits per plant and ascorbic acid in both year and pooled, for number of primary branches per plant, pericarp thickness and total fruit yield per plant in both years except pooled. The predictability ratio was lesser than (20%) was observed for plant height in both years and pooled.