Assessment of Genetic Variability, Heritability and Genetic Advance among Different Characters in Tomato [Solanum lycopersicum (Mill.) Wettsd]

Abstract

The field experiment was carried out at Horticulture Research Farm No.1, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow during Rabi season 2021-22. In this, twenty genotypes including check cultivars were evaluated to estimate the genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance for different characters. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with three replications. Characters viz., days to 50% flowering, plant height, number of primary branches per plant, polar diameter of fruit, equatorial diameter of fruit, total soluble solids, number of fruits per cluster, average fruit weight, number of fruits per plant, marketable fruit yield per plant, unmarketable fruit yield per plant and total fruit yield per plant were studied during the experiment. Analysis of variance showed significant differences among genotypes for all the characters under study during the investigation. The Phenotypic coefficient of variance (PCV) was higher than the genotypic coefficient of the variation (GCV) for the characters studied. The highest genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) was observed for unmarketable fruit yield per plant. The moderate GCV was reported for total fruit yield per plant followed by plant height and average fruit weight, polar diameter of fruit, no. of primary branches per plant, marketable fruit yield per plant and equatorial diameter of fruit whereas it was least for TSS followed by days to 50% flowering and number of fruits per cluster. Therefore these characters exhibited high heritability coupled with genetic advance thus show some scope for improvement through selection.