Combining ability of determinate-growth-habit tomato hybrids resistant to Begomovirus and Tospovirus

Abstract

The objective of this work was to evaluate the combining ability of determinate-growth-habit tomato inbred lines with multiple resistance to Tospovirus and Begomovirus species, ant to identify superior hybrid combinations. The experiment was carried out in greenhouse, with 14 hybrids obtained from crosses of seven lines of the group I (female parents) with two lines of the group II (male parent), in a partial diallel. The following agronomical traits were assessed: total production, early production, mean fruit mass, shape, initial firmness and half life firmness. The parental lines TOM-680 and TOM-682, from group I, stand out with the largest general combining ability (GCA) concerning total production, early production and average fruit mass, while line TOM-585 stood out as to higher values of total production and average fruit mass. In group II, TOM-698 showed higher estimates of GCA as to total production, early production, average fruit mass and initial consistence of the fruits. The hybrid TOM-682xTOM-698 had the highest estimate of general and specific combining ability to total production, early production and average fruit mass, and it is the most promising genotype among the materials tested.