Analysis of heterotic pattern of F1’s in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) for the improvement of yield and quality traits

Abstract

Consumption of vegetable with improved quality has been adopted as a strategy for ameliorating nutritional status of people. Not only improving quality but also upgrading the yield of the produce has become necessary to feed the growing population. Heterosis breeding has proven to be a quicker method in achieving this goal. The present research was conducted at the Vegetable Research Farm, Department of Horticulture, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi during Rabi seasons of 2017-18 and 2018-19, to estimate the heterosis in tomato for different yield and quality traits. Eight lines and three testers were crossed in a “Line × Tester” mating fashion to obtain 24 hybrids which were then used to evaluate for different traits along with their parents. The analysis of variance revealed that the estimates of mean squares for all eight characters studied were highly significant indicating wide genetic differences among the genotypes. The heterotic pattern for number of locules per fruit indicated that maximum per cent of significant relative heterosis in cross VRT-101-A × Arka Abha (63.04 %) followed by H-88-78-1 × Arka Abha (30.69 %) and VRT-06 × Pusa-120 (16.81 %). The cross combination Solan Vajra × Arka Abha followed by CTS-07 × Arka Abha and VRT-101-A × Arka Abha were noted to exhibit maximum per cent of positive significant heterobeltiosis in the extent of 23.30, 19.22 and 16.62 % respectively, in case of total fruit yield.