Correlation Analysis and Path Analysis of Characters of 11 Tomato( Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. ) Varieties

[Objective] To study the correlation between quality characters of tomato. [Method] Forty first-generation hybrid varieties of tomato from 5 female parents and 8 male parents were taken as the test materials to get tomato fruit shape index,pH,fruit hardness,and soluble dry matter with measurement method,total acid and VCcontent with titrimetric method,lycopene,soluble sugar,total sugar and reducing sugar content with colometric method,phenotypic correlation coefficient,genetic correlation coefficient of each character with correlation method, direct correlation effect and indirect correlation effect among characters. [Result]Within a certain range,higher fruit acidity means lower pH and higher fruit hardness. The correlation between sugar-acid ratio and soluble sugar,total sugar,soluble solid matter and reducing sugar content achieves the extremely significant level,that between soluble solid matter and soluble sugar achieves the significant level,that between sugar-acid ratio and total sugar content achieves the extremely significant level. Total sugar content has greater direct effect on soluble solid matter content; fruit hardness has negative effect on total sugar content via the indirect action of soluble solid matter and soluble sugar. According to the determination coefficients,determination coefficient of such characters as total acidity for sugar-acid ratio,and such characters as fruit hardness for total sugar content is 0. 5,and all others is 0. 5,i. e. character indexes are correlated,but other characters also act. [Conclusion]Screening quality tomato varieties is based on not only fruit shape index,fruit hardness,soluble sugar content,soluble solid matter content,total sugar content,reducing sugar content and total acid content,but also other characters influencing tomato quality,which lays a theoretic support for the future screening of quality tomato varieties.