Tomato being one of the popular nutritious vegetable, it’s low productivity and quality can affect producers as well as consumers. To cope up with the present day need, there is need for continuous evaluation of potential parents and hybrids with improved quality and yield traits. Thus the present investigation was conducted at Vegetable Research Farm, Department of Horticulture, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, BHU, Varanasi during Rabi season of 2017-18 and 2018-19 to analyze the general and specific combining ability of eleven genotypes of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) using Line × Tester analysis. The experimental material was evaluated in RBD with three replications under study. Combining ability analysis is a potential tool for the evaluation of inbreds in terms of their genetic value. The information pertaining to GCA and SCA effect thus help for identifying suitable parents as well as for identifying desirable cross combinations respectively for breeding program. It was revealed from the analysis that the mean sum of squares due to Line × Tester were found significant for all traits excluding days to 50 % flowering indicating the presence of variability for exploitation for remaining traits under study. In the present investigation for early flowering, parental genotypes CO-3 (-1.96) followed by VRT-101-A (-1.85) and Angha (-1.29) were noted to be good general combiner showing maximum significant values of GCA in the desirable direction. Among the lines, CTS-07 was found to be good general combiner for days to 50 % flowering, number of primary branches per plant, fruit length, fruit width, average fruit weight, fruit yield qper hectare, number of seeds per fruit and number of locules per fruit. Only one cross CTS-07 × Arka Abha showed significantly negative SCA effect and thus was reported to have best specific combining ability for days to 50 % flowering. Similarly for total fruit yield, parent Angha, Solan Vajra and CTS-07 were found to be good general combiners exhibiting higher values for positive and significant GCA to the extent of 41.16, 39.12 and 37.93 respectively.

Tomato, Line × Tester, Parents, General combiner, Breeding, Fruit yield

These information pertaining to GCA and SCA effect of different parameters related to yield and quality are important tool for identifying suitable parents to be used in breeding program as well as for identifying highly desirable cross combinations respectively. Among the lines, CTS-07 was found to be good general combiner for days to 50 % flowering, number of primary branches per plant, fruit length, fruit width, average fruit weight, fruit yield per plant, fruit yield per hectare, number of seeds per fruit and number of locules per fruit. Following CTS-07, Angha was reported to be a good general combiner for traits like fruit length, fruit yield per plant, number of locules and ascorbic acid content. Similarly, the hybrid Angha × Pusa-120 was found to be good specific combiner for both fruit length and fruit width; cross Angha × Pant T-5 for number of primary branches per plant and fruit yield per plant; hybrid Solan Vajra × Pant T-5 for plant height and pericarp thickness. Thus, the obtained results can help in deciding the suitable parents as well as suitable crosses for a particular trait that can be further utilized in breeding programmes for development of good hybrids in tomato.

Prachi Pattnaik, Anand Kumar Singh, Bajrang Kumar, Diksha Mishra, Binod Kumar Singh and Akhilesh Kumar Pal (2022). Examining the general and specific combining ability by line × tester analysis for yield and quality attributes in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.). Biological Forum – An International Journal, 14(4a): 01-09.