Principal Component Analysis Approach for Comprehensive Screening of Tomato Germplasm for Polyhouse Condition

Yield and yield contributing attributes are the mostly targeted in tomato improvement programme so the existence of variability has prime importance in plant breeding. In this study 14 genotypes were assessed with principal component analyses (PCA) based on morphological and biochemical traits to select genotypes and traits for future breeding program. Based on the PCA with 21 traits, 14 components were formed however, 6 PCs had more than 1 Eigen value with the variability of 87.60%. So, these six PC were used for further explanation. The first principal component explained maximum variability of the total variation presented. PC1 correlated with days to first flowering, days to 50% flowering and days to first fruiting etc. while PC2 dominated by β- carotene, lycopene, total soluble solid and ascorbic acid. PC 3 correlated with the traits like plant height at final harvest, number of fruits per plant and days to 50% flowering. PC 4 reflected positive factor loading by polar diameter, days taken to first picking and plant height at final harvest. PC 5 correlated with polar diameter, node to first flowering and ascorbic acid with positive factor loading and PC 6 correlated with ascorbic acid, days to 50% flowering, number of fruits per truss, equatorial diameter, pericarp thickness, titratable acidity, β-carotene, average fruit weight, fruit yield per plant. Therefore, the important traits coming jointly from diverse PCs and contributing towards elucidation variability may be kept into consideration during utilization of these traits in breeding programme of tomato.