Comprehensive Evaluation of Diverse Tomato Germplasm for Agronomic Performance, Marketability, Consumer Preference, and Prebreeding Applications

Abstract

Tomato ( Solanum lycopersicum L.) breeding increasingly emphasizes the integration of productivity, fruit quality, marketability, and consumer-preference traits. In the present study, 39 diverse tomato genotypes representing multiple fruit types were evaluated across two field environments at Tifton, GA, during the Fall 2025 season to characterize phenotypic diversity and identify promising breeding materials. Quantitative agronomic, marketable and unmarketable yield, qualitative horticultural, and sensory traits were assessed using integrated phenotypic analyses. Significant genotype effects were observed for most quantitative traits, including plant height, flower number, marketable fruit number, marketable fruit weight, and unmarketable fruit traits, indicating substantial phenotypic variability among genotypes. Correlation analysis revealed positive associations between flower number and marketable fruit production, whereas negative relationships between marketable and unmarketable traits suggested potential trade-offs between productivity and fruit quality retention. Principal component and hierarchical clustering analyses further separated accessions based on yield, fruit morphology, and marketability-associated characteristics. Qualitative trait analysis demonstrated significant associations between fruit type and traits such as fruit color and greenback presence. Major unmarketable fruit defects included cracking, black spot, browning, blossom-end rot (BER), and zippering, with considerable variation observed among accessions for defect incidence and marketability performance. Sensory evaluation revealed substantial diversity among genotypes for sweetness, aroma, flavor balance, firmness, juiciness, acidity, and overall preference. Genotypes UGA-TOM-5, UGA-TOM-25, and UGA-TOM-26 exhibited superior sensory performance, whereas UGA-TOM-23, UGA-TOM-5, UGA-TOM-22, and UGA-TOM-3 demonstrated superior agronomic performance. Several accessions, particularly UGA-TOM-5 and UGA-TOM-23, exhibited favorable combined performance across agronomic, marketability, and sensory evaluations. The identified elite accessions provide valuable parental resources for future tomato breeding efforts integrating productivity, fruit quality, and virus resistance.