COMBINING ABILITY AND HETEROSIS FOR YIELD AND QUALITY TRAITS OF F 1 HYBRIDS IN TOMATO (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

Abstract

The experiment was carried out at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural Uni versity, Dhaka1207, Bangladesh, during the

period of October, 2017 to March, 2018 and November 2018 to March 2019 to study combini ng ability and heterosis in intraspecific hybrids of some tomato genotypes. With eight tomato genotypes viz. G1

(SL-006), G2 (SL007), G3

(SL-008), G4

(SL-009), G5 (SL-0010), G6 (SL-0011), G7 (SL-0012) and G8 (SL-0013) the experimental field was organi zed i n Randomi zed Complete Block Design (RCBD) in three replications. In this study nineteen characters includi ng both agromorphogenic, nutritional and physiological were taken under consideration. High

general combi ning ability observed in parents G1, G3, G5 and G6 for one or more yield contributing traits. Characters like days to 1 st and 50% flowering, number of cluster per plant, fruit per cluster, fruit per plant, fruit wt, fruit area, relati ve water content, fruit pH and yield were governed by non-additi ve gene action. The maximum SCA effects was observed i n t he cross combinations G2×G1for higher yield and lowest in G2×G7 for days to first and 50% flowering and G2×G1 for early mat urity. Highest desirable significant heterobeltiosis for yield related characters was expressed by t he F hybrids G2×G6 (Plant hei ght), G3×G6 (branch number), G2×G8 (cluster number), G4×G3 (average fruit in one cluster), G2×G8 (fruit per plant), G1×G6 (fruit wt .), G5×G2 (fruit area) whereas, negati ve heterosis was hi ghest i n the crosses G3×G5 (1 st 1 flowering), G3×G5 (50% flowering) and G1×G8 (maturity days). Most of the chemical traits showed significant heterosis. Thus, these three combinations could be feasible for further selection to obtain high yielding, short duration and longer shelf life.