Heredities on fruit color and pigment content between green and purple fruits in tomato

Abstract Fruit color and pigment content are two important traits that largely determine the quality of tomato fruits. In this study, six genetic populations, namely, P 1 , P 2 , F 1 , BC 1 , BC 2 and F 2 , were generated using tomato plants with green and purple fruits as female and male parents, respectively. The genetic developments of fruit color and pigment content were investigated through multigenerational joint analysis of quantitative traits. Results demonstrated that the optimal genetic model of fruit color between green and purple fruits was MX1-AD-ADI. The major gene heritabilities of shade values in BC 1 , BC 2 and F 2 generations were 88%, 63% and 82%, and their polygene heritabilities were 9%, 11% and 14%, respectively. The heredity of lycopene content conformed to MX2-ADI-AD model. The heritabilities of major genes in BC 1 , BC 2 and F 2 were 67%, 78% and 97%, while those of polygenes were 21%, 0% and 0%, respectively. The genetic model of chlorophyll was MX1-AD-ADI. The heritabilities of major genes in BC 1 , BC 2 and F 2 were 62%, 77% and 62%, respectively, and those of polygenes were all 0%. The inheritance of carotene was in accordance with MX2-ADI-ADI model. The heritabilities of major genes in BC 1 , BC 2 and F 2 were 80%, 47% and 57%, while those of polygenes were 0.01%, 0.02% and 14%, respectively. This study provides valuable information for fruit quality improvement in tomato breeding.