Heterosis breeding for quality improvement in tomato (Lycopersiconesculentum Mill.) for cultivation in mid hills of Uttarakhand

Pawan Kumar, Ajaya Paliwal

Tomato (SolanumlycopersicumL.), an annual vegetable,second in production after potato of solanaceae family. Tomato is number one in processed vegetables. For the improvement in the genetic architecture, Heterosis breeding is most popular and successful approach in tomato. For the present study, six diverse tomato cultivars viz, ArkaSaurabh, ArkaAbha, ArkaMeghali, Punjab Chhuhara, Best of All and Sioux, selected on the basis of high yield coupled with high quality, were crossed in a half diallel fashion to obtain fifteen cross combinations. Three cross combinations viz, ArkaMeghali x Punjab Chhuhara, ArkaSaurabh x ArkaAbha and ArkaSaurabh x Punjab Chhuhara resulted in significantly positive heterosis over mid parent, better parent, for pericarp thickness. For total soluble solids, positive and significant heterosis over mid and better parents were observed in three cross combinations viz,ArkaSaurabh x ArkaMeghali, Punjab Chhuhara x Best of All and ArkaMeghali x Sioux. Best of All x Sioux and Punjab Chhuhara x Sioux showed highest significant positive heterosis over mid parent and better parentfor shelf life. While, for one of the most important quality trait lycopene content, ArkaSaurabh x ArkaMeghali, ArkaSaurabh x Punjab Chhuhara, ArkaSaurabh x Best of All and ArkaAbha x Best of All resulted in significantly positive better parent and mid parent heterosis.ArkaSaurabh x ArkaMeghali was the best cross combination for Lycopene content and total soluble solids.