Assessment of advance breeding lines of cherry tomato for reproductive, fruit quality and disease severity attributes could provide insight into the underlying biology of the source of desirable alleles for breeding for open field production. The study was undertaken to evaluate 14 newly developed breeding lines from India to utilize useful genes in cherry tomato breeding, and to assess genetic variability and character associationship among 19 quantitative characters to identify important selection indices, and genetic divergence to identify potential donor(s) for breeding cherry tomato especially under open field condition. Genotypes Cherry Round Yellow and 16/ToCVAR-1 appeared the most promising and could commercially be exploited as open field varieties in tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world, after critical testing. High, genotypic coefficient of variation, heritability coupled with genetic advance, occurred for pericarp thickness, fruit firmness, ascorbic acid content, titratable acidity content, total antioxidant activity of fruit, percent disease index of tomato leaf curl virus (PDI of ToLCV), and fruit yield per plant, which suggests that the characters concerned are conditioned by additive gene action and therefore, these characters would be more reliable for effective selection. The top priority should be given to selection based on fruit per flower cluster, pericarp thickness, fruit firmness, number of flower clusters per plant, fruit weight, and retinal activity equivalent for yield improvement and could be considered while formulating selection indices in the improvement of cherry tomato for open field condition. Geographical diversity was not adequate as an index of genetic diversity in field grown cherry tomatoes. The principal components, titratable acidity content, fruit yield per plant, PDI of ToLCV, and total antioxidant acidity, had eigen values >1 and together accounted for 100% of total variation. Based on multivariate analysis and average values, genotypes 16/ToCVAR-1, 16/ToCVAR-3, 16/ToCVAR-4, 16/ToCVAR-5, 16/ToCVAR-6, and Cherry Round Yellow were identified as potential donors that could be passed on to breeders not only for ToLCV resistant breeding but also for improvement in yield and better nutritional quality of cherry tomato either through development of hybrids, or isolation of potential lines from segregating generations, suitable for open field culture in tropical and subtropical regions of the world.

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