Determination of Important Yield-Attributing Traits in Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) through Path Coefficient Analysis

Abstract

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is an important vegetable crop, and fruit yield is a complex quantitative trait influenced by several interrelated morphological, reproductive and quality-related characters. The present investigation was conducted to identify important yield-attributing traits in tomato through path coefficient analysis using pooled data from two Rabi seasons, 2024-25 and 2025-26. The experiment comprised 43 genotypes, including 10 lines, 3 testers and 30 F₁ hybrids developed through a line × tester mating design, and was laid out in a Randomised Block Design with three replications at the Horticulture Research Farm-1, Department of Horticulture, School of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. Observations were recorded for sixteen quantitative and quality-related traits from five randomly selected plants in each plot. Path coefficient analysis was used to partition genotypic and phenotypic correlations into direct and indirect effects on total fruit yield per plant. At the genotypic level, the highest positive direct effect was recorded for marketable fruit yield per plant (0.6056), followed by fruits per plant (0.2724), average fruit weight (0.1346), polar diameter (0.1113), equatorial diameter (0.0842), total sugar (0.0656), pericarp thickness (0.0603), locules per fruit (0.0363), fruits per cluster (0.0300) and ascorbic acid (0.0258). At the phenotypic level, fruits per plant (0.4874), average fruit weight (0.3560) and marketable fruit yield per plant (0.3378) showed the strongest positive direct effects. These findings indicate that fruits per plant, average fruit weight and marketable fruit yield per plant are important selection traits for improving total fruit yield in tomato breeding programmes.