CORRELATIONS AND PATH ANALYSIS IN CHERRY TOMATO GENOTYPES

Abstract

Tomato is one of the most consumed vegetables in the world and in Brazil due to its nutritional and organoleptic quality and excellent flavor. This study aimed to evaluate the correlation among primary and secondary production components and their unfolding into direct and indirect effects on the total soluble solids content of cherry tomato genotypes. Five cherry tomato lines were crossed in complete diallel scheme of Griffing, Method 1, and parents and the 20 F 1 hybrids were evaluated for the traits: number of bunches per plant, number of flowers per bunch, number of fruits per bunch, number of fruits per plant, fruit weight, fruit yield and total soluble solids. Analysis of variance was performed considering information between and within plot. Subsequently, phenotypic and genotypic correlations were estimated, followed by path analysis. Genotypic correlations among the traits showed similar magnitude and same direction of their respective phenotypic correlations. Path analysis explained 92.2% of the variation on the total soluble solids among the evaluated genotypes. Based on the results obtained, it is possible to infer that the selection of yielding genotypes is the main strategy to increase the content of soluble solids in cherry tomatoes.