Niharika Singh, C.N. Ram, Aastik Jha, Anil Kumar, Ashish Kumar Singh, Shweta Verma and Rajat Kumar Maurya
Abstract
The characterization of Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability (DUS) was carried out in different cherry tomato (Solanum lycopersicum var. cerasiforme) accessions along with their hybrids developed through a half-diallel mating design. DUS testing is a mandatory requirement for the registration of new plant varieties and for granting Plant Breederâs Rights (PBR). The main objective of this evaluation is to confirm that a candidate variety is clearly distinguishable from all other existing varieties and exhibits sufficient uniformity and stability in its morphological characters. Furthermore, such characterization helps in identifying appropriate reference varieties that can be used for the protection and identification of new cultivars under the provisions of the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmersâ Rights Act. The results indicated that all cherry tomato accessions and their hybrids could be effectively classified on the basis of twenty one morphological descriptors. These descriptors provide reliable criteria for distinguishing different genotypes and may serve as standard reference traits for variety identification. In India, the activities related to plant variety testing, registration of new cultivars, and protection of breedersâ rights are coordinated by the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi. The DUS testing procedures adopted in the present investigation were based on the minimal descriptor guidelines developed for tomato crops as suggested by Srivastava et al. (2001).