SELECTION INDEX FOR GENETIC IMPROVEMENT IN TOMATO (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.)

Abstract

Ten tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) genotypes were tested in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications in the experimental field under the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur to construct an efficient selection indices that could lead to high genetic advance for yield and select promising parents among the genotypes during the period from October 2014 to April 2015. Data were recorded on plant height, canopy width, days to 1 st flowering, fruit diameter, fruit length, single fruit weight, number of marketable fruit per plant, thousand seed weight, shelf life and yield per plant. Analyses of variance for all the characters were showed significant differences among the genotypes. From the research work it was found that, significant difference was high in case of plant height, canopy width and number of marketable fruit per plant. Single fruit weight, days to 1 st flowering, fruit diameter and shelf life were showed moderate significant difference among the genotype. Small significant difference was observed in fruit length, thousand seed weight and yield per plant. Higher phenotypic and genotypic variance was observed in plant height, canopy width, single fruit weight and number of marketable fruit per plant. Plant height, canopy width, fruit diameter, fruit length, single fruit weight, number of marketable fruit per plant, thousand seed weight, shelf life and yield per plant can consider as favorable attributes for improvement through selection because of their higher GCV, PCV, heritability and genetic advance as percent of mean. Improvement would be more efficient with selection index based on yield per plant with plant height, canopy width, days to 1 st flowering, fruit diameter, fruit length, single fruit weight and number of marketable fruit association due to the maximum expected Genetic gain (665.63) with maximum relative efficiency (125.43%). Comparison between relative selection criterion of all the characters of ten tomato genotypes based on the best selection index with their total rank value parent-6 and parent-10 are the promising parents.