Genetic diversity analysis in Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

Abstract

The genetic diversity among 50 genotypes in tomato showed highly significant differences among the genotypes for all the characters indicating presence of sufficient amount of variability in all the traits. Mahalanobis D2 statistics revealed that considerable genetic diversity within and among nine clusters. The characters viz., fruit weight, number of fruits per plant, root length and plant height were the potent factors in differentiating the germplasm of tomato under this study., In addition to the genetic divergence, considering the mean performance, eleven genotypes for fruit yield from I, II, III and IX clusters, eight genotypes for earliness from II, III, IV, VI, VIII and IX clusters, nine genotypes for root length from I, II, III IV and VII clusters and seven genotypes for RDW/SDW from I, III and VIII clusters were superior and they can be used for future breeding programmes. There was a considerable variation among the genotypes for all the nine qualitative characters.