Combining ability of quality and yield in tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.)

Eight diverse genotypes were crossed in all possible combination excluding reciprocals to identify the best parental combination. The analysis variance postulated highly significant variances for general and specific combining ability to all the characters. The magnitude of general combining ability variances was higher than the specific combining ability variances indicating importance of additive component for all characters except fruit breadth. The parents EC-368860, BT-17, BT-18, EC-164336-A-1and EC-369060-A were observed good general combination for one or more of the character contributing yield. The crosses EC-339074 x EC369060-A and EC-164336A x BT-18 was most promising combination for quality and yield, respectively. The additive gene action in present study suggested that most of the crosses can be utilized for developing desired segregants.