Genetic Diversity among Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) Genotypes: A Review

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) holds significant importance as a vegetable crop worldwide and is classified within the Solanaceae family. Cultivated tomato and wild tomatoes are related to each other which originated from Peru, Ecuador and other parts of South America including the Galapagos Islands. Although originating in the Peru-Ecuador region, the tomato has gained immense popularity and widespread cultivation in India, exhibiting significant variability in various plant traits. To enhance tomato cultivation, a comprehensive understanding of genetic variability, heritability, genetic advance, correlation, path coefficient, and genetic diversity of both qualitative and quantitative traits is imperative. Traits showing higher values for genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance shows increased likelihood of achieving a higher selection response for maximizing productivity and yield. High significant positive association and positive direct effect of various yield attributing traits on fruit yield shows that these characters are the prime factors contributing to fruit yield. Improvement in yield and quality of self-pollinated crops like tomato also involves selecting genotypes with favorable trait combinations present in nature or through hybridization. Therefore, this review focuses on gathering information about the collection of indigenous tomato genotypes to formulate a breeding strategy for yield enhancement.