Improve Fruit Yield Research Articles

Exploring genotypic variability and interrelationships among growth, yield, and quality characteristics in diverse tomato genotypes

Tomato is the most consumed vegetable crop worldwide, with excellent beneficial health properties and high content of vitamins, minerals, carotenoids, total antioxidants, and phenolic compounds. Hence, improving its genotypes is crucial to sustain its production and ensure food security, principally under the fast-growing worldwide population and abrupt global climate change. The present study aimed to explore the genotypic variability associated with specific characteristics in twenty-five diverse tomato genotypes. In addition, the relationships between growth, yield, and quality traits using both univariate (correlation coefficient, path analysis) and multivariate (principal component, principal coordinates, canonical variate) analysis methods were explored. The results indicated that the evaluated genotypes possessed highly significant variation. This is appropriate for future hybridization through tomato breeding programs. All evaluated genotypes demonstrated considerable potential to develop strong hybrid vigour for growth, yield, and quality characteristics. In particular, the genotypes LS009, LS011, and LS014 could be considered promising, high-yielding, and resistant to yellow leaf curl virus infestation (YLCV) disease parents for future breeding schemes. The number of fruits per plant, fruit diameter, and fruit weight proved strong positive relationships with fruit yield. Accordingly, these characteristics demonstrate their importance in improving fruit yield and could be exploited as indirect criteria for selecting high-yielding tomato genotypes through breeding programs.

Exogenous silicon application improves fruit yield and quality of drip-irrigated greenhouse tomato by regulating physiological characteristics and growth under combined drought and salt stress

Improving crop productivity in drought-stressed and salt-affected regions is the key to promoting sustainable agriculture. Silicon is considered to improve the stress tolerance of crops, but how exogenous silicon application affects the fruit yield and quality of tomato under combined drought and salt stress remains unclear. A greenhouse experiment was conducted over two consecutive growing seasons (autumn 2021 and spring 2022) to investigate the effects of exogenous silicon application on leaf greenness, photosynthesis and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters, fruit yield and quality of drip-fertigated greenhouse tomato under various drought and salt stresses. There were three irrigation levels: I1 (90–100% θf, where θf is the field capacity), I2 (70%–80% θf) and I3 (50%–60% θf), two soil salinity levels: S0 (0.1%) and S1 (0.4%), and two silicon application rates: T0 (0 mmol L−1) and T1 (2.4 mmol L−1), resulting in a total of 12 treatments with three replicates. The results showed that the combined drought and salt stress significantly reduced leaf silicon content, plant height, leaf area index, aboveground biomass, net photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate and stomatal conductance of tomato plants, while the exogenous silicon application promoted these parameters. Irrigation level, salinity level, silicon rate and the interaction of irrigation level and salinity level had significant effects on fruit yield. Compared to S0, S1 decreased fruit yield by 18.42%, 17.91% and 20.64% under I1, I2 and I3, respectively. Exogenous silicon application significantly improved fruit yield by 6.52% (I3S0) - 17.73% (I2S1). Irrigation level, salinity level and silicon rate had inconsistent effects on fruit quality. Exogenous silicon application significantly increased total soluble solids, Vitamin C, soluble sugars and lycopene content, without significant effect on titratable acid. The lower irrigation level and higher salinity level resulted in better fruit quality. The path analysis showed that leaf silicon content, net photosynthetic rate, lycopene, average fruit weight had significant direct positive effects on fruit yield. The results are informative for improving drip-fertigated greenhouse tomato productivity and quality under drought-stressed and salt-affected conditions.

Fruit Detection and Counting in Apple Orchards Based on Improved Yolov7 and Multi-Object Tracking Methods.

With the increasing popularity of online fruit sales, accurately predicting fruit yields has become crucial for optimizing logistics and storage strategies. However, existing manual vision-based systems and sensor methods have proven inadequate for solving the complex problem of fruit yield counting, as they struggle with issues such as crop overlap and variable lighting conditions. Recently CNN-based object detection models have emerged as a promising solution in the field of computer vision, but their effectiveness is limited in agricultural scenarios due to challenges such as occlusion and dissimilarity among the same fruits. To address this issue, we propose a novel variant model that combines the self-attentive mechanism of Vision Transform, a non-CNN network architecture, with Yolov7, a state-of-the-art object detection model. Our model utilizes two attention mechanisms, CBAM and CA, and is trained and tested on a dataset of apple images. In order to enable fruit counting across video frames in complex environments, we incorporate two multi-objective tracking methods based on Kalman filtering and motion trajectory prediction, namely SORT, and Cascade-SORT. Our results show that the Yolov7-CA model achieved a 91.3% mAP and 0.85 F1 score, representing a 4% improvement in mAP and 0.02 improvement in F1 score compared to using Yolov7 alone. Furthermore, three multi-object tracking methods demonstrated a significant improvement in MAE for inter-frame counting across all three test videos, with an 0.642 improvement over using yolov7 alone achieved using our multi-object tracking method. These findings suggest that our proposed model has the potential to improve fruit yield assessment methods and could have implications for decision-making in the fruit industry.

Forage Radish Cover Crops Improve Soil Quality and Fruit Yield of Lycium barbarum L. in an Arid Area of Northwest China

Intercropping orchards with cover crops is an important practice for achieving sustainable soil management. However, little research has addressed the development of a soil quality index (SQI) to evaluate cover crop effects on orchard soil quality. The aim of this study was to ascertain whether cover cropping improves soil quality and fruit yield of Goji (Lycium barbarum L.) while reducing or replacing organic fertilizer application. The main treatments were the traditional management of L. barbarum as a monocrop (M) and intercropping Goji with radish (Raphanus sativus L.) as an annual cover crop (I). Within the main treatments, different levels of organic fertilizer were applied at 0 kg·plant−1 (M0), 2 kg·plant−1 (M1), and 4 kg·plant−1 (M2). After six years of planting, we analyzed the changes in soil quality caused by cover cropping with different organic fertilizer levels based on the SQI method. Goji yields were used for validation of the SQI derived from a minimum data set of soil quality indicators. In contrast with traditional monocropping, cover cropping increased soil total nitrogen, available nitrogen, and available phosphorus contents (by 78.60%, 30.30%, and 138.08%, respectively). There were also increased microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen contents (by 79.01% and 184.01%, respectively), enhanced urease and sucrase activities (by 41.02% and 56.81%, respectively), and reduced bulk density (by 1.92%) in the soil as a result of cover cropping. Compared with IM0 treatment, soil microbial biomass carbon and nitrogen contents considerably increased under IM1 treatment, whereas soil available nitrogen and potassium contents as well as electrical conductivity increased under IM2 treatment. The SQI, which varied among treatments in the order IM1 > IM2 > MM2 > MM1 > IM0 > MM0, was positively correlated with Goji yield. From the soil quality and Goji yield perspective, cover cropping with a medium level of organic fertilizer is the optimal soil management practice for the L. barbarum planting system in arid areas of Ningxia, Northwest China.

A Method for Predicting Canopy Light Distribution in Cherry Trees Based on Fused Point Cloud Data

A proper canopy light distribution in fruit trees can improve photosynthetic efficiency, which is important for improving fruit yield and quality. Traditional methods of measuring light intensity in the canopy of fruit trees are time consuming, labor intensive and error prone. Therefore, a method for predicting canopy light distribution in cherry trees was proposed based on a three-dimensional (3D) cherry tree canopy point cloud model fused by multiple sources. First, to quickly and accurately reconstruct the 3D cherry tree point cloud model, we propose a global cherry tree alignment method based on a binocular depth camera vision system. For the point cloud data acquired by the two cameras, a RANSAC-based orb calibration method is used to externally calibrate the cameras, and the point cloud is coarsely aligned using the pose transformation matrix between the cameras. For the point cloud data collected at different stations, a coarse point cloud alignment method based on intrinsic shape signature (ISS) key points is proposed. In addition, an improved iterative closest point (ICP) algorithm based on bidirectional KD-tree is proposed to precisely align the coarse-aligned cherry tree point cloud data to achieve point cloud data fusion and obtain a complete 3D cherry tree point cloud model. Finally, to reveal the pattern between the fruit tree canopy structure and the light distribution, a GBRT-based model for predicting the cherry tree canopy light distribution is proposed based on the established 3D cherry tree point cloud model, which takes the relative projected area features, relative surface area and relative volume characteristics of the minimum bounding box of the point cloud model as inputs and the relative light intensity as output. The experiment results show that the GBRT-based model for predicting the cherry tree canopy illumination distribution has good feasibility. The coefficient of determination between the predicted value and the actual value is 0.932, and the MAPE is 0.116, and the model can provide technical support for scientific and reasonable cherry tree pruning.

Agronomic Performance and Nutraceutical Quality of a Tomato Germplasm Line Selected under Organic Production System

Organic tomato production is increasing worldwide, thus making necessary the development of varieties adapted to this farming system. It is now well known that the implementation of local tomato plant breeding programs for organic farming is required to increase the performance of varieties in this typology of cultivation regime. In this research, the agronomic performance, nutraceutical contents, and radical scavenging activity of a tomato germplasm line (OSTGL), selected under organically grown conditions, were evaluated for two consecutive years (2018 and 2019) in comparison with the variety ‘Rio Grande’, frequently grown organically in Tunisia. Carotenoids, phenolics, vitamin C, and radical scavenging capacity were assayed spectrophotometrically, while tocopherols were analyzed by HPLC. All data were not affected by year-to-year variability. The OSTGL line showed significantly higher marketable yield, total phenol, flavonoid, vitamin C, α-tocopherol and γ-tocopherol contents, along with radical scavenging activity. The OSTGL red-ripe berries also showed comparable values for average weight, soluble solids, pH, titratable acidity, firmness and coloration, as well as lycopene and β-carotene contents. This open pollinated tomato germplasm line demonstrated to be an effective sustainable variety for improving fruit yield, agronomic, and nutraceutical characteristics under an organic management system.

Effects of saline water and N levels on eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) fruit yield, water productivity, and nitrogen use efficiency by drip and surface flood irrigation

Due to a scarcity of freshwater resources, agriculture is dependent on the use of poor quality water for irrigation in arid and semi-arid regions. Hence, the effective use of poor quality water requires pioneering water management and nitrogen fertilizer practices for increasing yield and resource efficiency. This study aimed to investigate the effect of saline water levels, nitrogen fertilizer, and irrigation methods on eggplant yield, water productivity, NPK uptake, and nitrogen use efficiency. The experiment was conducted in 2019 and 2020 under drip (IM1) and surface flood irrigation (IM2). The treatments included three saline water levels i.e. canal water (SW1), ECiw=2.5 dS/m (SW2), and ECiw=5.0 dS/m (SW3) along with the three nitrogen levels of 75% (N1), 100% (N2), and 125% (N3) of the recommended dose of nitrogen. Application of saline water using IM1 reduced the ECe by 41.8% (SW2) and 34% (SW3) over IM2. The fruit yield, water productivity (WP), NPK uptake, and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) was increased by 22%, 127.6%, 39.8%, 16.6%, 11.8%, and 23.8% under IM1 over IM2, respectively. A high saline water level under IM2 can cause more reduction in fruit yield, NPK uptake, and water use. Applying saline water through IM1 improves fruit yield, WP, and NUE by 13-32.8%, 104.1-147.3%, and 10.5-35.2% as compared to IM2. We found that saline water and N applied by drip improved eggplant yield, water productivity, and NPK uptake. It is concluded that irrigation water and nitrogen fertilizer consumption are optimized when saline water is applied through drip irrigation.

CPPU and salicylic acid application improved fruit retention, yield, and fruit quality of mango cv. Dusehri

ABSTRACT The present investigation was aimed at assessing the efficacy of N1-(2-chloro-4-pyridyl)-N3-phenylurea (CPPU) and salicylic acid on fruit retention, yield, and quality of mango cv. Dusehri. The research was carried out at the Department of Fruit Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India. The experiment was conducted simultaneously at two different locations for two cropping seasons during 2019–20 and 2020–21. Fruit retention enhancing treatments of 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) (@20 ppm), CPPU (@5, 10, and 15 ppm), and salicylic acid (@100, 200, and 300 ppm) were applied at pea stage of fruit growth. Experimental plants were observed for various reproductive, yield, and fruit quality parameters. The results indicated that foliar application of CPPU (T6-CPPU @10 ppm) significantly enhanced fruit retention during marble and harvest stages at both locations in both seasons. The novel growth hormone also improved fruit yield, fruit weight, and fruit quality in mango cv. Dusehri. Foliar applied salicylic acid recorded intermediate values for observed parameters. Therefore, foliar application of CPPU can be considered as a better alternative to 2,4-D for fruit drop management of mango.

Experimental approaches in studying active biomolecules modulating fruit ripening: Melatonin as a case study.

Phytohormones are naturally occurring small organic molecules found at low concentrations in plants. They perform essential functions in growth and developmental processes, from organ initiation to senescence, including fruit ripening. These regulatory molecules are studied using different experimental approaches, such as performing exogenous applications, evaluating endogenous levels, and/or obtaining genetically modified lines. Here, we discuss the advantages and limitations of current experimental approaches used to study active biomolecules modulating fruit ripening, focusing on melatonin. Although melatonin has been implicated in fruit ripening in several model fruit crops, current knowledge is affected by the different experimental approaches used, which have given different and sometimes even contradictory results. The methods of application and the doses used have produced different results in studies based on exogenous applications, while different measurement methods and ways of expressing results explain most of the variability in studies using correlative analyses. Furthermore, studies on genetically modified crops have focused on tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) plants only. However, TILLING and CRISPR methodologies are becoming essential tools to complement the results from the experimental approaches described above. This will not only help the scientific community better understand the role of melatonin in modulating fruit ripening, but it will also help develop technological advances to improve fruit yield and quality in major crops. The combination of various experimental approaches will undoubtedly lead to a complete understanding of the function of melatonin in fruit ripening in the near future, so that this knowledge can be effectively transferred to the field.

Acetic Acid Alleviates Salinity Damage and Improves Fruit Yield in Strawberry by Mediating Hormones and Antioxidant Activity

Acetic Acid Alleviates Salinity Damage and Improves Fruit Yield in Strawberry by Mediating Hormones and Antioxidant Activity

Biostimulants promote the accumulation of carbohydrates and biosynthesis of anthocyanins in 'Yinhongli' plum.

Biostimulants play an important role in promoting crop growth and development and improving fruit yield, but their influence on fruit quality in horticulture plants is still unclear. In this study, four types of biostimulants, Ainuo (AN), Aigefu (AG), Weiguo (WG), and Guanwu Shuang (GS) were applied to the fruit surface of 'Yinhongli' plum at 60 and 75 days after anthesis to investigate their effect on carbohydrates and biosynthesis of anthocyanins, and also analyze the relationship between sugar and anthocyanin accumulation during fruit color change to ripening. Results showed that all biostimulant treatments significantly improved fruit appearance quality, and increased single fruit weight and TSS/TA. Cyanidin 3-O-glucoside and cyanidin 3-O-rutinoside, are the most important anthocyanins in the red skin of the 'Yinhongli' plum, and no anthocyanin was detected in the green skin. In addition, WG and GS treatments significantly increased the expression of structural genes involved in anthocyanin biosynthesis compared with the control, especially chalcone synthase (CHS) and flavonoid 3-O-glucosyltransferase (UFGT) at 95-105d after anthesis, leading to anthocyanin accumulation 10 days earlier than the control. Correlation analysis showed that there was a significant correlation between total sugar and anthocyanin content during fruit coloring and ripening.

Effect of planting and mowing cover crops as livestock feed on soil quality and pear production.

The increasing demand for animal-products has led to an increasing demand for livestock feed. Using cover crop as green manure in orchards is an effective measure to improve fruit yield and quality. However, the effect of mowing cover forage crops as livestock feed on soil quality and crop production is unclear. Therefore, a 4-year field experiment, which included two treatments, was conducted in pear orchards in Luniao County, China: natural grass (NG) and planting and mowing forage crop ryegrass as livestock feed (MF). Under MF treatment, most soil nutrient content, especially alkalihydrolysable N (AN), total phosphate (TP), available phosphate (AP), and microbial biomass phosphate (MBP), had decreased significantly (P<0.05), while β-D-glucosidase (BG, C-cycle enzyme) and soil C limitation at 10-20 cm depth and P limitation at subsoil (20-40 cm) was increased. In addition, the soil bacterial community component in topsoil (0-10 cm and 10-20 cm) and fungal community component in topsoil and subsoil were changed in the MF treatment. Network analysis showed that MF treatment had a lower edge number in topsoil but the community edge numbers increased from 12794 in NG to 13676 in MF in subsoil. The average weight degree of the three soil layers in MF treatment were reduced, but the modularity had increased than that in NG. For crop production, MF treatment was 1.39 times higher in pear yield and titratable acids (AC) reduced from 0.19% to 0.13% compared with NG. These changes were more associated with the indicators at the subsoil, especially for TP, AN, pH, and F-NMDS1 (non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) axis 1 of fungi). These results provide data support for the feasibility of planting and mowing forage crops as livestock feed on orchards as well as a new idea for the integration of crop and livestock.

​Optimization of Sowing Density for Improving Fruit Yield of Tomatoes Grown in Open-field Crop

Background: Sowing density optimal is rated a less expensive solution for enhancing the output of tomato yield in the background of extending food requirements worldwide. Methods: The main objective of this study is to investigate the sowing density effect on the growth and tomato yield planted in Don Duong district of Lam Dong province, Vietnam. The study was conducted during the spring tomato crop (January to June 2020) with five different sowing densities varying from 33000 to 50000 plants/ha based on drip irrigation system supply approximately 100% of actual evapotranspiration. Result: Results pointed out that among investigated sowing densities, sowing density 45830 plants/ha obtained the optimal fruit yield (OFY) up to 87.8 tons/ha compared with different sowing densities while other observed variations as the number of bunches, fruit weight per plant and diameter were no significant difference. Based on the findings, tomato growers can sow with a density 45830 plants/ha to obtain the OFY thereby contributing to increase profits.

Perceptions on the Challenges of Banana Cultivation and Bio-based Technology Use Among Malaysian Smallholder Farmers

Bananas are one of the most commonly grown fruit crops in Malaysia, but local production has declined in recent years. Through site visits and interviews with 74 smallholder banana farmers, this study sought to know the current situation of the local smallholder banana industry, the challenges faced in commercial banana cultivation, and the use of bio-based technologies to address the challenges. The farmers cited increasing production costs, pests and diseases, and yield uncertainties as major challenges to their plantations’ survival. While they have been using farming techniques, including bio-based technologies, to improve fruit yield, the farmers perceived the current technologies as inadequate in mitigating the impacts of frequent disease outbreaks. The interviews also reveal farmers’ misconceptions on the nature of tissue culture technology, reflecting their poor understanding of how tissue culture works, thus, putting banana farms at risk. Overall, this study’s direct engagements with banana farmers show that correct information and access to technology are a rare privilege for smallholders. Therefore, coordinated efforts to substantially increase support for smallholder farmers is paramount.

Application of 5-aminolevulinic acid promotes ripening and accumulation of primary and secondary metabolites in postharvest tomato fruit.

5-Aminolevulinic acid (ALA) plays a vital role in promoting plant growth, enhancing stress resistance, and improving fruit yield and quality. In the present study, tomato fruits were harvested at mature green stage and sprayed with 200 mg L-1 ALA on fruit surface. During ripening, the estimation of primary and secondary metabolites, carotenoids, and chlorophyll contents, and the expression levels of key genes involved in their metabolism were carried out. The results showed that ALA significantly promoted carotenoids accumulation by upregulating the gene expression levels of geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase (GGPPS, encoding geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase), phytoene synthase 1 (PSY1, encoding phytoene synthase), phytoene desaturase (PDS, encoding phytoene desaturase), and lycopeneβ-cyclase (LCYB, encoding lycopene β-cyclase), whereas chlorophyll content decreased by downregulating the expression levels of Mg-chelatase (CHLH, encoding Mg-chelatase) and protochlorophyllide oxidoreductase (POR, encoding protochlorophyllide oxidoreductase). Besides, the contents of soluble solids, vitamin C, soluble protein, free amino acids, total soluble sugar, organic acid, total phenol, and flavonoid were increased in ALA-treated tomato fruit, but the fruit firmness was decreased. These results indicated that the exogenous ALA could not only promote postharvest tomato fruit ripening but also improve the internal nutritional and flavor quality of tomato fruit.

In Arid Regions, Forage Mulching between Fruit Trees Rows Enhances Fruit Tree Light and Lowers Soil Salinity

Agroforestry is considered a means to provide sustainable and productive agriculture. This work aims to study the effect of fruit-grass agroforestry patterns on the soil moisture, salinity, growth, and yield of fruit trees, as well as to provide a reference for the development of agroforestry complex systems in Northwest China. The study has been designed with two cropping patterns: monocropped apple and apple-ryegrass intercropping. The results showed that compared to monocropped apples, intercropped apples have increased soil moisture content by 33.38–39.02%, net photosynthetic rate by 35.33–42.26%, transpiration rate by 29.62–29.76%, and stomatal conductance by 15.65–16.55% in the 0–60 cm soil layer. Intercrop reduced the total soil salt content by 36.41–38.58%, and the intercellular CO2 concentration decreased by 5.96–6.61%. In addition, intercropping improves fruit yield and quality by improving the orchard environment and increasing tree height, breast height, north-south crown spread, and east-west crown spread. Therefore, increased yield and quality can be achieved by changing the fruit tree and ryegrass planting method, which is beneficial to the sustainable development of agriculture in Northwest China.

Genome-wide analysis of growth-regulating factor genes in grape (Vitis vinifera L.): identification, characterization and their responsive expression to osmotic stress.

Identification, characterization and osmotic stress responsive expression of growth-regulating factor genes in grape. The growth and fruit production of grape vine are severely affected by adverse environmental conditions. Growth-regulating factors (GRFs) play a vital role in the regulation of plant growth, reproduction and stress tolerance. However, their biological functions in fruit vine crops are still largely unknown. In the present study, a total number of nine VvGRFs were identified in the grape genome. Phylogenetic and collinear relationship analysis revealed that they formed seven subfamilies, and have gone through three segmental duplication events. All VvGRFs were predicted to be nucleic localized and contained both the conserved QLQ and WRC domains at their N-terminals, one of the typical structural features of GRF proteins. Quantitative real-time PCR analyses demonstrated that all VvGRFs, with a predominant expression of VvGRF7, were constitutively expressed in roots, leaves and stems of grape plants, and showed responsive expression to osmotic stress. Further growth phenotypic analysis demonstrated that ectopic expression of VvGRF7 promoted the growth and sensitivity of transgenic Arabidopsis plants to osmotic stress. Our findings provide important information for the future study of VvGRF gene functions, and potential gene resources for the genetic breeding of new fruit vine varieties with improved fruit yield and stress tolerance.

Residue analysis and effect of preharvest forchlorfenuron (CPPU) application on quality formation of kiwifruit

Forchlorfenuron (CPPU) is widely used as a growth regulator in kiwifruit production to improve fruit yield. However, little is known about the dissipation profile of CPPU and the effect of pre-harvest CPPU treatment on fruit aroma formation during storage. Here, high (0.02 g L−1) and low (0.005 g L−1) dosages of CPPU were applied to ‘Biyu’ kiwifruit at twenty days after anthesis (DAA). The results revealed that 4-OH-CPPU was the main metabolite from CPPU and the 75 d after treatment is a key period for the conversion of CPPU into 4-OH-CPPU. Pre-harvest CPPU treatment reduced fruit hardness, respiratory rate, fatty acids, fatty-acid derived volatiles (FA-VOCs) and activities of ROS scavenging enzymes such as SOD, POD and CAT, but evidently increased the levels of malondialdehyde (MDA), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), total soluble solids (TSS), some sugars and amino acids during storage, especially in fruit under high-dosage CPPU treatment. Therefore, we concluded that pre-harvest CPPU treatment might inhibit fatty acid biosynthesis, reduce membrane integrity and further decrease fruit storage ability and aroma quality, and therefore pre-harvest application of high-dose CPPU on kiwifruit is not recommended. These results would help to clarify the action mechanism of preharvest CPPU treatment on aroma formation and provide reference for the rational application of CPPU on kiwifruit.

GENETIC ANALYSIS AND HETEROTIC STUDIES IN TOMATO (SOLANUM LYCOPERSICUM L.) HYBRIDS FOR FRUIT YIELD AND ITS RELATED TRAITS

A study was conducted to determine the types of gene action of different yield-related traits in tomato and the combining ability in four advanced lines. The heterotic response in tomato hybrids was also assessed. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant differences (P ≤ 0.05) among all the traits. General combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) for all chosen traits were computed using Griffing’s approach of diallel. Combining ability revealed the additive and non-additive genetic effects for all selected traits of advanced lines. T-1360 was found as a good general combiner for the number of cluster plant-1, average fruit weight, number of flowers cluster-1, fruit length, number of fruit cluster-1, and yield. The variance of the GCA to SCA ratio was found less than 0.5 for each trait, which confirmed the presence of non-additive gene action. The results revealed higher magnitudes of phenotypic coefficient of variance (PCV) than the genotypic coefficient of variance (GCV). The high magnitudes of heritability (72% to 92%) and genetic advance (36.63% to 139.72%) were found for the number of cluster plant-1, average fruit weight (g), the number of fruits cluster-1, and yield. Among all crosses, the cross ST-100 × T-1360 showed maximum positive heterosis over the mid parent (566.6%) and the better parent (455.5%). The identified tomato genotypes can be used further in different tomato breeding programs to improve fruit yield and other yield-related traits.

A review of the applications of CRISPR/Cas systems in crops and postharvest losses of agricultural produce

CRISPR/Cas systems are the third-generation genome editing systems, which appeared in 2012 and quickly became a superstar in genome editing tools because of their great simplicity and usability compared to with ZFN and TALEN. CRISPR/Cas was originally identified as an effective acquired immune system in bacteria against virus infection and relies on RNA–DNA binding to achieve sequence specificity in genome editing. CRISPR/Cas9 system has become widely used in plants for characterizing gene function and crop improvement. Crops such as tomato, rice, banana and wheat are excellent model plants for biological research and are most important applied plants for genome editing. Genome editing has also been applied in plant breeding for improving fruit yield and quality, increasing stress resistance, accelerating the domestication of wild tomato, and recently customizing tomato cultivars for urban agriculture. In addition, genome editing is continuously innovating, and several new genome editing systems such as the recent prime editing, a breakthrough in precise genome editing, have recently been applied in plants. In this review, the advances in applications of CRISPR/Cas systems genome editing technology to enhance specific features in plants in order to mitigate postharvest losses and wastes are summarized.