SCREENING OF TOMATO GENOTYPES FOR DROUGHT TOLERANCE

Abstract

Drought is one of the major limiting factors that have a significant impact on global tomato production. A reliable evaluation system is needed to identify true droughttolerant

tomato genotypes, which will aid in the breeding program. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the drought tolerance of nineteen tomato genotypes. Drought stress was achieved by fully turning off the water supply to plants grown in shed house conditions. Two weeks after transplanting, the seedlings received the treatments (drought and regular irrigation) for two weeks. Two weeks after water stress, several parameters such as shoot and root length, plant biomass, photosynthetic pigments, relative water content, reducing sugar and total phenol were measured. Research revealed significant differences in the evaluated traits between the control and drought-stressed plants. Drought severity stress showed a positive correlation with the reduction of plant growth, relative water content, and photosynthetic pigments, as well as an increase in reducing sugar and phenol levels. BARI Tomato 14, BARI Tomato 15, and BARI F 1 Tomato 4 were found to be drought tolerant than other cultivars based on the various measured parameters. The findings indicate that measurements of shoot dry weight, relative water content, and shoot length are better for determining drought stress and screening drought-tolerant tomato genotypes.