Genetic analysis for multiple fruit yield and its attributing traits in eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) used as wild species Solanum gilo as male parent under tarai conditions of Uttarakhand

Abstract

AbstractThe identification of heterotic combinations may provide a significant benefit in hybrid eggplant / brinjal (Solanum melongenaL.) breeding. This two year study evaluated the gene action and combining effects that governs yield and yield contributing characters in brinjal. A set of 28 F1hybrids were generated by crossing eight parents, the crosses PB-6 x PB-101, BARI x Pusa Upkar, Pant Rituraj x Pusa Upkar, SMB-115 x Pant Rituraj, Pant Rituraj x PB-101, Pusa Upkar x PB-101 exhibited high sca effect for majority of the characters under study. On the basis of these ranking best parents and best specific combination could be identified for further breeding programme for brinjal improvement. The magnitudes of specific combining ability variance were higher than general combining ability variance for all characters in both years 2018 & 2019. This indicated that the physiological and vegetable characters were predominantly under the non-additive control whereas, additive genetic control was observed to be predominant for yield per hectare. Further it was also observed that the degree of dominance was found to be more than unity for all characters in both years, indicating over dominance types of gene action for these characters. Predominance of non-additive genetic variance indicated the suitability of heterosis breeding for improvement of this trait in eggplant. These crosses could be utilized and the prospect of extracting transgressive segregants in the segregating generations.