Heritability and genetic advance studies in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

The present study was undertaken to estimate heritability and genetic advance for fruit yield and its component traits in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.). The experiment was conducted at Main Vegetable Research Station, AAU, Anand during kharif-rabi 2023-24. The experimental material comprising six generations (P1, P2, F1, F2, B1 and B2) raised from four crosses viz, cross I (AB 20-13 × AB 20-07), cross II (Punjab Sadabahar × Anand Raj), cross III (ABSR 2 × AB 20-13) and cross IV (Anand Harit × AB 21-13) were grown in a compact family block design with three replications. The observations on sixteen characters were recorded for the experiment of each cross i.e. five plants in P1, P2 and F1, ten plants in B1 and B2 and twenty plants in F2 generations. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among different crosses studied except branches per plant and moisture content. The analysis of variance among the generations within cross comparisons also indicated significant differences for all the traits studied except fruit weight in cross AB 20-13 × AB 20-07, fruit length, leaf length and leaf width in crosses AB 20-13 × AB 20-07 and ABSR 2 × AB 20-13, fruit yield per plant in crosses AB 20-13 × AB 20-07 and Anand Harit × AB 21-13, fruit girth and branches per plant in crosses AB 20-13 × AB 20-07, ABSR 2 × AB 20-13 and Anand Harit × AB 21-13, moisture content in all crosses and anthocyanin content in cross Anand Harit × AB 21-13. In the study, for most of the traits the estimate of broad and narrow sense heritability has high to moderate values which was coupled with high to moderate genetic advance. Conversely, moderate to high estimates of narrow sense heritability coupled with low genetic advance was observed for days to first flowering in crosses Punjab Sadabahar × Anand Raj and Anand Harit × AB 21-13, fruit weight in cross ABSR 2 × AB 20-13, peduncle length in cross AB 20-13 × AB 20-07, total soluble sugars in cross Anand Harit × AB 21-13 and total phenols in cross AB 20-13 × AB 20-07. These results proposed that for these traits population improvement approach would be more effective.