Appraisal of combining ability and gene action for yield, it’s governing characters and quality traits in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.).

The present research was undertaken to examine the combining ability of 10 parents and 21 hybrids that resulted from crossing of seven lines and three testers in line × tester mating design, for yield and quality governing traits in tomato. The study indicated that no single parent was the finest combiner of all the attributes. The estimated variance resulting from GCA was significant for fruit yield per plant and fruit girth, suggesting that the additive gene action was responsible for these characteristics. The SCA variance was observed significant for plant height, fruits per plant, TSS and ascorbic acid, manifesting that inheritance of these characters was governed by dominant and epistatic gene action. Combining ability studies indicated that fruit weight and seeds per fruit exhibited significant GCA and SCA variance, while their relative magnitude bear witness to non-additive gene effect. The estimates of gca effects demonstrated that, the line NTL-14-08 is good general combiner for fruit yield per plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]