GENETIC DIVERSITY OF FRUIT RELATED TRAITS IN TOMATO (Lycopersicon esculentwn)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted with 29 genotypes of tomato (Lycopersicon esculepuum) considering 13 fruit related characters at the experimental farm of Sher-eBangla Agricultural University, Dhaka. during October 2011 to February 2012. The objectives of the study were to assess the genetic diversity among the genotypes, to know the association of traits, direct and indirect relation between yield contributing characters and to screen out the suitable parents group for hybridization. The phenotypic variances were higher than the genotypic variances. The significant positive correlation with fruit yield per plant was found in fruit diameter, number of locules per fruit, number of clusters per plant, number of fruits per plant and fruit weight. Path coefficient analysis showed that fruit weight had maximum positive direct effect on fruit yield followed days to first fruit setting, fruit diameter, number of clusters per plant and number of fruits per plant. Multivariate analysis techniques were used to classify 29 tomato genotypes. The genotypes were grouped into five clusters. Both cluster I and cluster V contained the highest number of genotypes and cluster H contained the lowest number of genotypes. The highest inter-cluster distance was found between cluster I and 111 and the lowest inter-cluster distance was observed between cluster I and If. On the other hand, the highest intra cluster distance was found in cluster II and the lowest intra cluster distance was observed in cluster I. Cluster I consists of nearest cluster with D2 values cluster II & farthest cluster with D2 values cluster III. The value of Vector I and Vector II revealed that both Vectors had positive values for days to first flowering, fruit diameter, number of locules per plant and number of fruits per plant indicating the highest contribution of these traits towards the divergence among the genotypes. Considering all the characters 06 (SARI Tomato4) and Gio (BD-7260); G& (SARI Tomato4) and G73 (BAR!TomatoII); G6 (BAR!Tomato4) and G (BARI Tomato-3); 65 (BAR!Tomato-3) and G (BD7301) may be suggested for future hybridization program.