Study on Heritability and Genetic Variability Among Different Plant and Fruit Characters of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

The present investigation was conducted to elucidate the genetic characters viz. variability and heritability between yield and yield components of different tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) genotypes. Eighteen genotypes including released varieties, landraces and germplasms were used in this investigation for assessment of quality, yield and yield components. The experiment was conducted during summer; 2013-14 at field of Department Vegetable Science, K.R.C. College of Horticulture, Arabhavi, Belagavi district Karnataka, India. Data on morphological characters were recorded from mean value of five randomly selected plants in each genotype. The genotypes exhibited a wide range of variability for all the characters studied. Analysis of variance showed significant variation among the genotypes for all tested characters. Phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was higher than genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) for all the characters studied. Days to first fruit maturity showed the highest genotypic and phenotypic variance (3427.10and 6531.93) whereas TSS (?Brix) showed the lowest ones (0.55 and 0.63). High genotypic variance was observed for most of the characters indicating more contribution of genetic component for the total variation. Genotypic coefficient of variations (GCV) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) were highest for yield/ha (341.89 and 323.12), whereas the lowest ones were for days to first flowering (5.82 and 7.21). Higher GCV and PVC were recorded for most of the characters indicating higher magnitude of variability for these characters. The highest heritability was recorded for yield/ha (96.34%), while the lowest was for plant height (45.30%). High heritability (broad senses) estimates were observed for all the tested characters indicating that these characters are controlled by additive genes action which can be improved by simple selection.