ABSTRACT
Tomato is the most important vegetable species and has a strong bottleneck effect in its domestication and evolution. In exploring the existing genetic variability in commercial germplasm, germplasm has been proven to be an excellent alternative to obtain inbred lines in order to provide superior new hybrids in the future. In this sense, the objective of this study was to estimate the genetic distance among commercial processing tomato hybrids via agronomical and quality postharvest fruit traits with the aim of suggesting promising crosses for the formation of base populations for tomato breeding. Ten hybrids of processing tomato were evaluated in a complete randomized block design with three replicates. In total, eleven agronomic and postharvest fruit quality traits were evaluated. The genetic distances were estimated between the hybrids using the generalized Mahalanobis () and Gower () distances. The genetic distance among tomato hybrids was determined using a graphic projection of the first two canonical variables. The presence of significant genetic variability among the hybrids (P <0.05) was demonstrated and was sufficient for the selection of the best hybrids before the breeding process. The hybrid Laura stood out for its postharvest characteristics and was the most divergent genotype compared to the others evaluated. The most promising crossings for the formation of segregating populations with superior genetic merit are Kátia x Laura, Vênus x Laura, Fascínio x Laura, AP-533 x Laura, Tinto x Laura, AP-529 x Laura, Supera x Laura, Granadero x Laura, Granadero x AP533, Granadero x Ap529 and Granadero x Kátia.
Index terms:
Solanum lycopersicum; genetic distance; pre-breeding; breeding populations; transgressive segregate