Study of Tomato Source Material for Breeding Highly Productive Hybrids

Abstract

In world agriculture, the tomato plays a leading role due to its high nutritional properties, high yields, adaptive abilities and a wide range of uses in fresh, culinary and processing industries. The global tomato market volume is more than 160 million tons. In the ranking of countries, Russia is in 6th place in terms of area and 11th in terms of gross production of tomatoes. Unfortunately, at the moment, a significant part of tomato seed material is imported. The implementation of the import substitution program creates the need to develop domestic breeding and seed production of this crop. The purpose of these studies was to conduct a breeding assessment of parental tomato lines for productivity traits based on statistical analysis methods and to identify promising source material for further breeding work to develop highly productive hybrids. As a result of the research, three best combinations were identified in terms of productivity of hybrids: 2f2-16(8-2) x Veneta, 108t/20 x Victor and 2f216(8-2) x Victor, which have a positive effect of specific combining ability, have average and high positive effects of the general combining ability of both maternal and paternal lines. Two maternal lines 108t/20 and 3f-14 showed a positive general combining ability for early and total productivity and its components. therefore, these parents can be successfully used in future breeding programs.