GENETIC DIVERSITY IN TOMATO LANDRACES COLLECTED FROM TURKEY AND IRAN REVEALED BY MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERS

Ninety-seven tomato landraces collected from East Anatolian region of Turkey and North-West of Iran, along with three commercial cultivars were evaluated during two years. Experiment was carried out in an alpha lattice design at Agriculture and Natural Resources Research Center of West Azerbaijan, Iran. Analysis of variance revealed significant variation (P <= 0.01) among genotypes for all the experimental characters. Yield showed a positive and significant correlation with length and width of cotyledon leaf, length and width of true leaf, fruit weight, fruit length and diameter, pericarp thickness and fruit peduncle length. In principal component analysis, the first three components explained for 71.6% of total variations among genotypes. Since the first component determined 50% of total variations and yield had high significant coefficient with this component, thus it might be used as s selection criteria to identify genotypes with high yield in breeding programs. Cluster analysis using Ward method classified genotypes into five groups. Groups included: early maturing genotypes in group I, genotypes with high yield in group II, genotypes with large fruit in group III, late maturing and high total soluble solids (TSS) genotypes in group IV and genotypes with high acidity in group V.