Heterosis and combining ability of dual-purpose tomato hybrids developed to meet family farmers' needs in Brazil and Mozambique

Abstract

Brazil is the world eighth largest tomato producer and, within the country, the tomato production chain is segmented according to fruit destination: fresh consumption and processing (industrial supply). In contrast, Mozambique does not have a differentiated chain and cultivars are expected to serve both purposes. As there are no tomato breeding programs in Mozambique, cultivars used in the country come from other regions of the world, including Brazil. This paper describes the development and assessment of tomato hybrids with dual-purpose: fresh use and processing. Five tomato genotypes (B13LD, Castone, Massag-72, "Viradoro", and "Rio Grande") were crossed in complete diallel design without reciprocal, and the general and specific combining ability (GCA and SCA) and heterosis were estimated to ten agronomic and fruit quality traits. The offspring of cross B13LD x "Rio Grande" showed potential for use in dual purpose, considering SCA and heterosis estimates for fruit firmness (FF), total content of soluble solids (TSS), number of fruits per plant (NFP) and yield (YLD). Combinations B13LD x Castone, Massag-72 x "Viradoro", and Massag-72 x "Rio Grande", although having no strength to increase YLD, had positive heterosis for FF, TSS, and NFP. The development of high-yielding genotypes, with agronomic traits that meet the expectations of both markets are a breakthrough for Mozambican tomato producers and may also be very convenient to family farmers in Brazil. In both countries, these dual-purpose cultivars represent the freedom of choice to farmers, who will be then in position to allocate their production to the most profitable market segment.

Assessment of 112 tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) cultivars for industrial processing in Portoviejo, Ecuador

“…Likewise, they found a high statistical significance between tomato cultivars characterized by good tomato paste features, which were associated with a high level of °brix that contribute favorably to tomato flavor. Total soluble solids are one of the main components in tomato flavor and influences consumer preferences and industrial performance (Graça et al, 2015). On the other hand, soluble solids are important not only for their contribution to flavor, but also in terms of processing requirements.…”

“…On the other hand, soluble solids are important not only for their contribution to flavor, but also in terms of processing requirements. In this sense, it is desirable to produce tomatoes with high soluble content because they require less energy to evaporate the water in industrial processes (Graça et al, 2015).…”

“…Flavor, texture and aroma attributes should be considered as a whole in vegetables (Moretti, Mattos, Calbo & Sargent, 2010). This information is of utmost importance to meet consumer needs as well as to enable a genetic selection of new cultivars and practices that optimizes production and postharvest handling skills for tomato (Graça, Amaral, Rodrigues, Gonçalves, Sudré, Vivas & Melo, 2015).…”

Agronomic performance of mini-tomato hybrids from dwarf lines

“…Heterosis is mainly manifested in tomatoes by an increased number of fruits per plant, resulting in greater productivity (Borém;Miranda, 2009;Graça et al, 2015). Higher fruit quantity is closely related to the genes that control the growth habit of tomato plants belonging to the self-pruning family (SP) (Piotto;Peres, 2012).…”

Correlations and Path Analysis in Cherry Tomato Genotypes

“…Many studies have investigated physicalchemical (Akbudak et al, 2009) and yield traits of tomato (Graça et al, 2015;Zhang et al, 2015;Zeist et al, 2017), as well as the correlation and the correlation unfolding between them (Meena and Bahadur, 2015;Ali et al, 2017). However, there are few papers addressing the correlations between traits and path analysis on cherry tomatoes.…”