Combining Ability Analysis for Yield and Its Attributing Traits in Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

The line x tester analysis using seven lines and three testers was carried out with a view to estimate of combining ability in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) for twelve different characters. The analysis of variance for combining ability revealed that both additive and non-additive gene effects were important in the inheritance of all the traits and the magnitude of variance due to GCA were higher than those of SCA for days to 50% flowering, leaf area at 50% flowering, chlorophyll content index and fruit yield per plant indicating predominant role of additive gene action in the inheritance of these traits. While, the magnitude of variance due to SCA were higher than those of GCA for plant height at final harvest, number of fruits per plant, average fruit weight, fruit length, fruit diameter, pericarp thickness, fruit yield per plant, shelf life of fruit and total soluble solids indicating the predominant role of non-additive gene action in the inheritance of these traits. The parental lines viz., GT-2, JTL-12-12, JTL-12-11 and JTL-12-08 were good general combiners for majority of the traits including fruit yield per plant which found promising for their exploitation in practical plant breeding. The hybrids viz., JTL-12-12 x JT-3, AVTO1 x JT-3, JTL-12-08 x AT-3, JTL-12-11 x GT-2 and JTL-12-10 x GT-2 recorded higher order SCAeffects for fruit yield per plant.