Combining ability analysis for yield and yield attributing traits in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

A study was conducted in tomato to analyze the combining ability and gene action for yield and its yield attributing traits. Twenty one F1 hybrids were generated through half diallel mating design comprising of seven lines. These 21 F1 hybrids along with 7 parents and one standard check ‘Abhinav’ were evaluated at Regional Horticultural Research Station, NAU, Navsari (Gujarat) in randomized block design with three replications. The analysis of variance for combining ability revealed that variance due to general combining ability (GCA) and specific combining ability (SCA) were highly significant for all the characters except days to last picking, plant height and number of locules per fruit. This indicates involvement of both additive as well as non-additive gene action in the inheritance of these traits. However, the ratio of σ2gca/σ2sca indicated predominance of non-additive gene action for all the traits. The estimates of GCA effects indicated that parent AVTO-4 were good general combiners for fruit yield and its contributing characters while the hybrids AVTO-2 x AT-4 and AVTO-3 x AVTO-4 had higher per se performance and SCA effect for fruit yield and its yield contributing traits.