Genetic Diversity among Tomato (Solanum Lycopersicum L.) Genotypes

A field experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design with 27 genotypes of tomato in three replications. The present investigation is to find out the genetic diversity among tomato genotypes for fruit yield and its attributing characters. Mahalanobis distance (D2) was used to estimate the genetic distance between pair of clusters. Estimates of cluster analysis revealed that the twenty seven genotypes were grouped into eight distinct clusters. Genetic distance between any pair of clusters showed highly significant difference. Cluster I had maximum number of genotypes (9) followed by cluster II (8), cluster III (4), cluster V (2), while as clusters IV, VI, VII, VIII were having only one genotype in each cluster. Maximum inter-cluster distances was observed in cluster IV and cluster VI (7021.27), cluster II and VI (5628.93) whereas the maximum intra-cluster distance was observed in cluster III (770.46) and cluster I (721.11). Highest contribution to divergence observed in lycopene content (mg/100g), fruit yield (q/ha) and ascorbic acid content (mg/100g) and days to red ripen fruit stage. The crosses between the genotypes of cluster VI with IV and Cluster VI with II are likely to exhibit high heterosis and could produce recombinants with desired traits in segregating generations.