Genetic divergence in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.)

Forty eight genotypes of tomato were assessed for their genetic divergence using Mahalanobis D² statistics. Based on D² values of eight yield related characters, genotypes were grouped in to eight clusters. Maximum genotypes were grouped in cluster I and II (10 in each), the remaining 28 genotypes were distributed in six clusters, six each in cluster III, IV and V, five in cluster VI, four in cluster VII and one genotype in cluster VIII. Clustering pattern indicated that there was no association between geographical distribution of genotypes and genetic divergence. The mean intra and inter cluster distance (D) revealed that cluster V had highest intra cluster distance (2.12), while the inter cluster distance was maximum between cluster VIII and III (6.79). The characters like number of fruits per plant, average fruit weight, plant height and fruit yield (q/ha) contributed maximum to genetic divergence.