Variability analysis in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) crosses under drought stress

Climate change in recent years has affected crop production to a greater extent. To overcome these effects, climate-resilient varieties are needed. Tomato is a versatile crop. However, its growth is hindered when it is affected by drought stress. Hence, a variability analysis of tomatoes under drought stress was carried out at Horticulture College and Research Institute, Coimbatore. Variability studies revealed that all the crosses for all parameters exhibited higher phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) values than genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV), indicating the influence of environmental effects. For all the crosses, viz., EC169966 × LE118, EC177824 × LE27 and Arka Ashish × LE27, high PCV and high GCV were recorded for characteristics including fruit number per plant, yield per plant, lycopene content and peroxidase activity. Characteristics such as the number of flowers per cluster, fruit number per plant, individual weight of fruit, yield per plant, relative water content, proline content, peroxidase activity and ascorbic acid content recorded higher heritability coupled with high genetic advance as a percentage of the mean (GAM). Thus, direct selection of the above parameters improves drought-tolerant breeding programs in tomato.