In arid regions, temperature is among the main factors influencing tomato growth and yield. In general, the comparisons among the mean performance, heterosis and potence ratios of the 21 tested populations (Table 2-4). The results indicated that the parental genotypes exhibited relatively wide variation in most of the studied traits and that most of the differences among the genotypes were significant. Strain-B (P
3) cultivar gave the highest mean values for all the studied traits followed by Tanshet Star (P
4), with the exception of total fruit yield per plant trait, which was highest in Pakmore VF (P
2). Meanwhile, the line L05960 (P
6) gave the lowest mean values for most of the traits. Only, total soluble solids, ascorbic acid content and number of fruits per plant traits, were lowest in line TL01899 (P
5). Such results, indicates the existence of genetic variability among parental genotypes making it possible for the identification and selection of the best potential genotypes that will develop good tomato hybrids under the arid conditions. Such results seemed to be in partial agreement with the findings of
Solieman et al., (2013) and
Figueiredo et al., (2015) who reported wide range of variability for most traits among tomato genotypes, which reflect good chance for selecting the best parental genotypes in breeding programs.
In addition, most of the 15 F
1 hybrids produced average values that tended to be either more than their respective mid-parental values, or exceeded of the superior parental values under the arid conditions presented in this study. Significant differences between plant height and number of primary branches per plant of some
F1 hybrids indicated that their general performances were better than their respective parents. These results indicate that dominance has a clear role in the inheritance of these traits. Kansouh and Masoud (2007), Solieman (2009), Singh and Asati (2011) and
Solieman et al., (2013) reported that tomato genotypes differ significantly in regards to these two traits. In addition, these previous studies also hypothesized that most of the genetic variation involved in general, plant performance was the result of non-additive gene action.
Most of the F
1 hybrids in the present study outperformed their respective parents with regard to fruit setting, fruit length, fruit diameter, total soluble solids, fruit dry weight, number of fruits per plant and total fruit yield per plant. These results were confirmed by the estimates of heterosis, relative to mid-parental values and potence ratios. The results indicate that dominance effects are involved in the genetic control of these traits, which corresponds to the findings of Solieman (2009),
Dordevic et al., (2010) and
Solieman et al., (2013), who observed that different degrees of gene effects (additive, partial to over-dominance) were responsible for the inheritance of number of fruits per plant and total fruit yield per plant. However,
Sharma et al., (2002) and
Garg et al., (2008) reported that additive gene effects have greater role than non-additive gene effects in the inheritance of number of fruits per plant, total fruit yield per plant and of total soluble solids, respectively. On the other hand, the performance of the hybrids in regards to shoot dry weight, ascorbic acid content and fruit fresh weight indicated the involvement of various degrees of recessiveness. These results were confirmed by negative estimates of heterosis, relative to mid-parental values and potence ratios and are in agreement with the findings of
Garg et al., (2008), for ascorbic acid content and Wahb-Allah (2008) for fruit weight, since partial dominance was observed for these traits. Meanwhile,
Farzane et al., (2012) and
Kumar et al., (2013) and
Figueiredo et al., (2015) confirmed that non-additive gene effects play an important role in the inheritance of fruit weight and ascorbic acid content, respectively. However, Banerjee and Kalloo (1989) reported that additive gene action mainly govern the inheritance pattern in tomato. In general, these results indicate that crosses between tomato genotypes produce F
1 hybrids that can outperform both of their parents or other commercial cultivars. General performances of ten F
1 hybrids indicated general superiority on their performances for number of fruits per plant and total yield per plant high heterosis is regarded as a result of the effects of non-additive gene action.
The most favorable hybrids among the tested 15 F
1 hybrids , which gave the highest mean values of the studied traits under the arid conditions were the crosses P
1× P
3, P
1 × P
4 and P
3× P
4 for plant height; P
1× P
3, P
2 × P
3 and P
3 × P
4 for fruit length, fruit diameter and fruit fresh weight, P
1× P
3 for number of primary branches per plant, fruit setting, fruit diameter and ascorbic acid content; and the P
3 × P
4 for fruit setting, shoot dry weight, total soluble solids, fruit dry weight, number of fruits per plant and total fruit yield per plant. Such results illustrated that the general performance of the 15 F
1 hybrids were generally superior to their parents. This finding suggests that both additive and non-additive gene effects play major role in the basic inheritance mechanisms of these quantitative tomato traits. Moreover, the non-additive gene effects were more pronounced for most studied traits indicating their contributions to the genetic variability more than the additive gene effects.
Amaefula et al., (2014), Reddy et al., (2014) and Kumar and Gowda (2016). These results indicated that tomato crosses can produce F
1 hybrids which may outperform either of their parents.
The estimated percentages of heterosis is reflected desirable positive effects in at least ten of the 15 F
1 hybrids for the following traits: plant height, number of primary branches per plant, fruit setting, fruit length, fruit diameter, total soluble solids, fruit dry weight and total fruit yield per plant (Table 2-4). On the contrary, the rest F
1 crosses gave negative heterosis values, which indicate non-desirable heterotic effects for the previous traits in comparison with their mid-parents.
The estimated potence ratios for most of the F
1 crosses were positive for plant height, number of primary branches per plant, fruit setting, fruit length and fruit diameter (Table 2-4), which indicated that varying degrees of dominance(partial to over-dominance) were involved in the inheritance of these traits. However, the estimated potence ratio values for most of the F
1 hybrids were negative for shoot dry weight, total soluble solids, ascorbic acid content, fruit fresh weight, fruit dry weight, number of fruits per plant and total fruit yield per plant, which indicated that varying degrees of recessiveness (partial to under-recessiveness) were involved. These results are in broad agreement with the findings
Ahmad et al., (2011) and
Souza et al., (2012). Farzane et al., (2012) confirmed that over dominance effect plays an important role in the genetic control of number of fruits per plant and average fruit weight. For fruit length, positive potence ratios were observed for all 15 F
1 hybrids, which indicated the involvement of partial to over-dominance. Meanwhile, for fruit number per plant, positive potence ratios were observed for six of the F
1 hybrids, indicating clear dominance, whereas negative potence ratios were observed for the other nine F
1 hybrids indicating varying degrees of recessiveness. Partial to over-dominance was also indicated by the performances of F
1 hybrids in total fruit yield per plant, since the estimated potence ratios ranged from 0.08 to 2.48.
Among the 66 possible correlation coefficients of the studied traits, 54 were either significant or highly significant (Table 5). Furthermore, of the significant correlations, 41 were desirable positive correlations and most of these involved fruit yield and its components, such as the correlation between fruit setting and fruit fresh weight, number fruits per plant and total fruit yield per plant; between fruit fresh weight and total fruit yield per plant and between number fruits per plant and total fruit yield per plant. In contrast, 13 of the 54 significant correlations were undesirable negative correlations. Such results of the phenotypic correlation coefficients appear to correspond to those reported previously by
Susic et al., (2002) and
Al-Aysh et al., (2012) for the correlations between total fruit yield per plant and fruit weight, by
Hannan et al., (2007) and
Tasisa et al., (2012) for the correlation between total fruit yield per plant and number of fruits per plant and by
Solieman et al., (2013) for the correlations between total fruit yield per plant and both the number of fruits per plant and fruit weight. In general, the results of correlation coefficients among tomato traits indicated the importance of these traits in yield and quality improvement and that they would be considered in breeding programs.