Estimation of Genetic Divergence among Indigenous and Exotic Accessions of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.)

Thirty genotypes of tomato, both indigenous and exotic were tested for the presence of diversity on the basis eighteen yield and quality traits. Mahalanobis's D² analysis was employed to estimate the distances between and within the clusters formed from the test genotypes. Ten clusters were formed using Tocher's method. Cluster I, III and X were having 16, 3 and 2 genotypes, respectively, rest of the seven clusters were solitary and having single genotype each. The highest inter-cluster distance was found between clusters IV and X whereas lowest distance was observed between cluster VI and VIII suggested a closer relationship between these clusters and low degree of diversity among the genotypes. The maximum contribution towards divergence was accounted by plant height, seed index and yield per plant (∼15% each) followed by fruits per plant, juice-pulp ratio, pericarp thickness and flowers per cluster. Results also revealed that there was no association between clustering pattern and eco-geographical distribution of genotypes. On the basis of the divergence study the genotypes could be selected from the most divergent clusters for hybridization and further selection programme.