Biotech Updates

Heterosis for Flower and Fruit traits in Tomato Studied

July 16, 2010

Rahmani Gul of Agricultural Research Institute and colleagues conducted a study in tomato using an 8 x 8 diallel set excluding reciprocal to measure the level of heterosis for yield and other yield characteristics: number of flowers per cluster, number of fruits set per cluster, fruit length, fruit width, fruit weight and fruit yield per plant. Seven accessions and one local variety were crossed in half diallel fashion. The product F1 progeny and the parent lines were assessed in a 6 x 6 Tripple Lattice Design during the 2007-2008 cropping season.

The scientists reported that there was highly significant heterosis of positive nature for "flowers per cluster (53.1 and 37.2%), fruits per cluster (38.9%), fruit length (32.7 and 15.5%), fruit weight (48.7 and 45.0%) and yield per plant (34.9%) over the mid and better parents, respectively." Better parent heterosis or heterobeltiosis for fruit weight was observed in four hybrids. Three single cross hybrids, together with four parental genotypes, will be used in the succeeding tomato breeding programs.

Read the full length research paper at http://www.academicjournals.org/AJB/PDF/pdf2010/5Jul/Gul%20et%20al.pdf.