Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

GENETIC VARIABILITY STUDIES IN TOMATO GERMPLASM FOR ZINC AND IRON CONTENT AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH GROWTH AND YIELD PARAMETERS

G. J. Pavithra, Mahesh Salimath, Rameshraddy, K.N. Geetha and A.G. Shankar

Abstract

Malnutrition due to unavailability of micronutrients such as zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe) are major hurdle factor for the state of human wellbeing. The present study includes 35 tomato germplasm accessions and a few leading varieties. The growth, yield observations and micronutrient (Zn and Fe) content were recorded for analysing the extent of genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance. A significant variability was observed between the germplasm lines and varieties for measured parameters interestingly for Zn and Fe content. However, analysis of variance revealed significant differences for all the parameters studied. A high genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was observed, with small difference between the GCV and PCV, indicating the less influence of environment on the measured parameters. Likewise, high broad sense heritability with genetic advance for the measured parameters infers the scope for analysing the germplasm for various traits. Correlation studies revealed the association of few growth and yield parameters with each other but Zn and Fe content was less associated with the most of the parameters studied. Together with the growth observations the vast variability in the micronutrient content in the germplasm lines are encouraging for the breeding strategies in biofortification programs.