Diallel cross analysis of nutritional characters of tomato

Diallel analysis of eight genotypes was done to estimate nature of gene action for six fruit nutritional quality characters of tomato viz carbohydrates, proteins, carotenoids, ascorbic acid, potassium, lycopene content and fruit yield. For this eight genotypes were crossed in diallel way excluding reciprocals. Parents were evaluated with 28 F1 and F2 progenies each in RBD with three replications. Haymans genetic component analysis revealed that the nature of gene action determined was under the control of both fixable and non-fixable gene effects, with non-fixable gene effects more important for all the traits in both generations except fruit yield for which both gene effects were equally important in F1 generation. Diallel analysis revealed low to moderate narrow sense heritability estimates indicating exploitation of heterosis breeding to improve yield coupled with nutritional quality traits in the present study.