Accurate heterosis prediction is essential for tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) hybrid breeding. This study evaluated heterotic effects and parental genetic distance (GD) using open reading frames (ORF)-targeted sequence-related amplified polymorphism (SRAP) markers, assessing their correlation with agronomic traits. Six parental genotypes’ crossing used a North Carolina II design, with F1 hybrids evaluated in a randomized complete block design. Hybrid H2 exhibited the highest heterosis for fruit weight, achieving 181% mid-parent heterosis (MPH) and 173.3% best-parent heterosis (BPH). Maximum GD (Nei = 0.183) occurred between P1 and P5. Notably, GD correlated significantly and positively with fruit weight per plant (MPH: r = 0.713; BPH: r = 0.742) but negatively with harvest time (MPH: r = –0.733; BPH: r = –0.742). These findings suggest that SRAP-derived GD is a reliable predictor for fruit weight and harvesting time in tomato breeding.
Tomato (S. lycopersicum L.), heterosis, genetic distance, correlation, SRAP, yield-related traits
This study indicates that using SRAP-based genetic distance can help choose parents to create tomato (S. lycopersicum L.) hybrid with high productivity and early maturity.