Genetic divergence studies in tomato (lycopersicon esculentum mill.)

Fifty-five genotypes of tomato were studied for their genetic divergence using Mahalanobis D² statistics at Hyderabad. Based on D² values of 13 characters, genotypes were grouped into 12 highly divergent clusters. Some of genotypes were so divergent in all the characters; hence, each single genotype formed a separate cluster. Thus, eight clusters viz., III, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI and XII were solitary with one genotype in each cluster. The remaining four clusters were having maximum number of genotypes. Cluster II was biggest with 20 genotypes followed by cluster I (14 genotypes), while the other two clusters IV and V comprised six and seven genotypes, respectively. The maximum genetic divergence was observed between clusters IX and XII followed by between clusters V and IX. The maximum intra-cluster distance was shown by cluster V. Hence, the crosses of genotypes from clusters IX with cluster XII will result in the development of high acidity and early maturity variety. The characters viz., acidity content followed by shelf life, plant height, TSS, ascorbic acid content, average fruit weight and number of fruits per plant contributed greatly towards diversity.