Assessment of Genetic Divergence in Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill) Genotypes

The present investigation was carried out during Kharif season at the Horticulture Research centre of the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture & Technology, Meerut, U.P. 2020. The D2 statistics was applied to assess the genetic divergence among 20 genotypes of tomato using Mahalonobis D2 analysis. The experimental materials were planted in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with three replications. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the genotypes for all the characters under study. The genotypes were grouped into five different genetic clusters on the basis of genetic affinity or diversity. Cluster III comprised of highest 7 genotypes followed by Cluster I comprised of 4 genotypes, Cluster II also comprised of 4 genotypes, Cluster V comprised of 3 genotypes and Cluster IV comprised lowest number of 2 genotypes. The highest mean value was recorded in Cluster V for number of fruits per cluster, number of fruits per plant, fruit yield per plant (g), fruit yield /ha (q) and 1000 seed weight (g) followed by cluster II for harvest duration (days), average fruit weight (g) and number of seeds per fruits, Cluster III for number of primary branches, plant height (cm), Cluster I for number of clusters per plant and Cluster IV for number of locules per fruit respectively. The maximum intra cluster distance was found in cluster V and minimum intra cluster distance was recorded cluster IV. The highest inter- cluster distance was recorded between Cluster I and Cluster V and the minimum inter cluster D2 distance was recorded between cluster I and Cluster IV. The highest contribution in the manifestation of genetic divergence was exhibited by number of fruits per cluster followed by number of primary branches, fruit yield per hectare, number of locules per fruit, plant height, harvest duration, number of clusters per plant, average fruit weight, number of fruits per plant, 1000 seeds weight, fruit yield per plant and lowest in number of seeds per fruit. Which could lead to the production of a wide range of beneficial genetic variation for tomato yield improvement.