Genetic distances and divergence for heat tolerance as revealed in exotic germplasm of tomato (Solanam lycopersicum L.)

Abstract

Genetic divergence was investigated in heat tolerant lines of tomato for yield and quality traits during Kharif, 2014 at Experimental Farm, Vegetable Research Station, ARI, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad using Mahalanobis’s statistics. Based on twenty five quantitative and quality characters, the twenty germplasm both exotic and indigenous were grouped into five clusters based on the relative magnitudes of values following Tocher's method of cluster formation. Based on the rank totals, the characters which contributed maximum towards genetic divergence in the present study were chlorophyll content, relative water content, fruit length, ascorbic acid and total soluble solids.