the correlation between traits and path analysis of yield in tomato

to determine the relationship between yield and components of it and identify the effective traits on yield, 97 tomato landraces from west azarbaijan in iran (83 landraces) and iğdır in turkey (14 landraces) along with three commercial cultivars were studied using an alpha lattice design with two replications. the experiment was carried out at the agriculture and natural resources research center of west azerbaijan during two years (2012-2013).combined analysis of variance indicated significant variation among cultivars for all the experimental characters. correlation analysis revealed significant positive correlation between yield and length and width of cotyledon and true leaves, number of days to fruit maturity, fruit weight, length of fruit, diameter of fruit and pericarp thickness while significant negative correlation was observed between yield and number of flowers per inflorescence, fruit set per cluster, number of fruits per plant, number of days to 50 percent of fruit maturity, total soluble solids (tss) and acidity. in stepwise regression analysis fruit length, tss and percentage of fruit set per cluster were entered to the model, respectively. these characters explained 43 percent of yield variation. path analysis showed that fruit length, leaf width, fruit weight and pericarp thickness have the most positive direct effect on yield. thus, these traits could be used as selection criteria in tomato breeding programs for yield improvement.