Estimation of heterosis in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) for TSS, ascorbic acid, lycopene and acidity

Heterosis were estimated using five lines and five testers and their twenty-five F1 combinations, crossed in line x tester design which were evaluated for two seasons for important quality traits viz., TSS, ascorbic acid, lycopene and acidity. Some of the parents having good capability for generating superior F1 combinations for most of the quality characters under study have been identified. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated significantly higher amount of differences among genotypes for all four characters studied. In this study among the cross PBNT-20 X PBNT-5 exhibited positive desirable heterosis over better parent for TSS (39.67%) and PBNT-10 X PBNT-1 (16.77%) for ascorbic acid. The cross Dhanashree X PBNT-1 showed the highest positive heterosis over better parent for lycopene (17.26%) and the cross combination PBNT-10 X PBNT-1 (77.63%) exhibited positive heterobeltiosis for acidity.