Distinctness, uniformity and stability testing of various cherry tomato accessions

Abstract

The Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability (DUS) characterization of various cherry tomato accessions and their hybrids generated in Half-Diallel mating design was undertaken to generate guidelines for their testing, as it is a legitimate pre-requisite prior to the registration of varieties and accord of Plant Breeder’s Rights (PBR), to create distinctness of candidate variety from all other varieties and to adopt these varieties as reference ones for the protection of other varieties under PPV & FR Act. The testing revealed that all the accessions and their crosses can be categorized for each trait based upon twenty-six descriptors which may be used as reference material. In India, all the undertakings related with plant variety testing, registration of new cultivars and the Plant Breeders’ Rights are furnished by the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi. The DUS testing procedures for various cherry tomato accessions and their hybrids are as per the Minimal Descriptors of Agri-Horticultural Crops for tomato (Srivastava et al., 2001).