Morphological diversity determination of the tomato fruit collection (Solanum lycopersicum L.) by phenotyping based on digital images

Germplasm characterization is an effective way to unravel morphological diversity in vegetative and fruit traits. This study was carried out to determine the diversity in tomato fruits ( Solanum spp.) using eight conventional descriptors (CD) and 47 Tomato software descriptors Analyzer (TA), related to the morphometry of the fruits. The phenotyping of 50 accessions selected by the morphological variation of the National Bank of Genetic Resources was carried out. A variability was detected for the characteristics of the fruit with CD and quantified by TA. In the phenotyping of 50 accessions selected by the morphological variation of the National Bank of Genetic Resources a variability was detected for the characteristics of the fruit with CD and quantified by TA. The shape of the fruit was the main character used for the visual grouping of accessions in ten different varietal groupings: Circular (26 %), Flattened (20 %), Obo-val (20 %), Pyriform (12 %), Elliptical (6 %), Cordate (6 %), Cylindrical (4 %), Oblong (2 %), Oval (2 %) and Flattened (2 %) and very small to large in size. Significant variation was observed for fruit weight (3.75-217.44 g), equatorial diameter (17.85-75.55 mm), polar diameter (17.57-96.76 mm), perimeter (61.86-312.64 mm) and area (249.56-6367.57 mm). The principal component analyzes analysis contributed to the total variation and the first two explained 30.02 % of the variation where the fruit shape index and the shape of the proximal/distal end of the fruit showed a high contribution to the variation of the first component. There was a strong positive correlation between fruit shape and size, while negative correlations were between fruit shape index, internal eccentricity, and proximal end shape. The results have shown that the TA and CD software descriptors are a powerful tool for the characterization and classification of tomato landraces, as well as for distinguishing between groups of related cultivars. This has important implications for the improvement and protection of local tomato varieties.