Generation mean analysis in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.): Estimation of gene actions for fruit yield and its component traits

Abstract

Gene actions for fruit yield and its component traits of six basic generations (P1, P2, F1, F2, B1 and B2) of two crosses namely, JTL-15-02 x JT-3 and JTL-12-02 x AT-3 of tomato were estimated through generation mean analysis. The experimental material was evaluated in Compact Family Block Design with three replications at Vegetable Research Station, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh. The analysis of variance revealed the significant differences between the families as well as among the generations of each family for all the characters studied. Importance of both additive as well as non-additive gene actions was realized for most of the characters in both the crosses. However, non-additive gene actions were more profound than the additive gene action for all the characters in both the crosses except for fruit length in JTL-15-02 x JT-3. Duplicate type of epistasis was observed for fruit yield and its attributing traits suggesting selection would not be effective for such traits due to its non-fixable nature in earlier generation.