Assessment of Genetic Diversity for Yield and its Attributing Traits in Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) Genotypes for Protected Conditions

Abstract

Background: Tomato plant has high yield potential, although the yield is very low because of non-availability of superior cultivars for protected cultivation. Presence of diversity is an important for variety development. Hybridization among divergent parents is probably produce ample variability and helps to isolate superior recombinants. So, the study was carried out to assess of genetic diversity in tomato for choosing promising and genetically diverse parents for improvement in yield for protected cultivation. Methods: Fourteen genotypes of tomato were planted inside naturally ventilated polyhouse during September 2018 to May 2019. The data were recorded for twenty-one characters from randomly five tagged plants from each genotype and genetic diversity was computed by utilizing Mahalanobis D2 analysis. Result: All genotypes were arranged into five highly divergent clusters in which cluster I contain maximum genotypes followed by cluster II. The intra cluster distance was highest in cluster I and inter-cluster distance was highest among cluster-II and V. Cluster means indicated that cluster II had high mean values for maximum traits. The highest contribution towards genetic diversity was shown by fruit yield/plant followed by number of fruits per plant. Based on breeding objectives, potential lines are selected as parents for utilization in hybridization programme.