Assessment of wild tomato accessions for fruit yield, physicochemical and nutritional properties under a rain forest agro-ecology

Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) is a broadly consumed fruit vegetable globally. It is one of the research mandate vegetable of the National Horticultural Research Institute (NIHORT), Ibadan, Nigeria. The institute’s contains diverse collections of tomato accessions and wild relatives, without utilization information for the African continent. With the decline in diversity and potential of cultivars, a robust tomato breeding pipeline with broad genetic base that eliminates redundancy in the development of lines with desired horticultural traits is paramount. This study evaluated the mean performance and variations of thirteen wild tomato accessions obtained from the C.M. Rick Tomato Genetic Resource Center, University of California, Davis, USA, evaluated for agronomic, nutritional and physicochemical traits under a rain forest zone in Nigeria. The accessions were planted and grown in three replications with randomized complete block design. Agronomic traits, physicochemical and nutritional parameters were measured and analyzed. There was significant (P < 0.001) variation among accessions for all traits measured. Accession LA0130 was separated from others by cluster analysis and was outstanding for its unique attributes which include: fruit yield parameters, total soluble solids, acidity and content. The principal component analysis suggests fruit yield related traits, acidity and contributed most to the variation among the 13 accessions. The results obtained can be used to breed materials adapted to a rain forest . These wild tomato accessions have genes with desirable agronomic, nutritional and physicochemical traits that could be into breeding lines to improve commercial tomato varieties.