Estimation of gene action involved in inheritance of yield and yield attributing traits in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) under Kashmir conditions

The present investigation entitled “Estimation of gene action involved in inheritance of yield and yield attributing traits in Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)” under Kashmir conditions was initiated to gain a deeper understanding of the nature and degree of gene action in tomatoes for various yield and yield contributing features. Twelve distinct tomato lines aside from reciprocals were crossed in a diallel method and subjected to three distinct environmental conditions for gene action research. Observations were recorded on the 18 characters viz., number of days to first flowering, number of days to first fruit set, number of days to first fruit harvest, number of flowers cluster-1, number of fruits cluster-1, number of pickings, number of fruits plant-1, fruit length (cm), fruit diameter (cm), number of locules fruit-1, pericarp thickness (mm), number of primary branches plant-1, plant height (cm), average fruit weight (g), fruit yield plant-1 (kg), fruit yield hectare-1 (q), average number of seeds fruit-1, 100 seed weight (g). Analysis of variance revealed significant differences for the parents; F1’s and parents vs. F1’s for maximum characters indicating wide variation. The estimates of components of genetic variation indicated that the additive (D̂) as well as dominance (Ĥ1 and Ĥ2) components were significant in the individual and data pooled over environments. Average degree of dominance (Ĥ1/D̂)1/ 2 was more than one for all the traits indicating over-dominance. The inheritance of most features was shown to involve both additive and dominant variance, with the former being more significant than the latter. For the majority of the characters, the mean degree of dominance indicated over dominance.