Evaluation of Morpho-physiological Fruit Traits of Some Tomato Populations in Iran Using Correlation Coefficients and Cluster Analysis

In the present research, different morphological and physiological traits of fruit were measured in order to evaluate the variation and morpho-physiological traits in 10 Iranian tomato landraces. The landraces were collected from Varamin, Rafsanjan, Rasht, Esfarayen, Gorgan (2 landraces), Khanbebin (2 landraces), Kermanshah and Kordestan. Based on the results, the wide range of variation confirms the existence of high diversity among tomato landraces. A significantly positive correlation was recorded between length and diameter of fruit and lycopene content with fruit weight and anthocyanin. Fruit anthocyanin and lycopene were positively and significantly correlated with glucose, fructose and total glucose at 1% probability level. This indicates that increasing in sugars synthesis increases the biosynthesis of anthocyanin. The results of cluster analysis for categorizing similar landraces showed the highest similarity between Gorgan1 and Kermanshah, followed by  cluster 6 and cluster 8, respectively. In this cluster, the landraces of Khanbebin1 and Esfarayen were more similar to Rasht, Gorgan1 and Kermanshah. Overall, the results of this experiment show a high diversity among landraces that can be used in tomato breeding programs.