Genetics and heterosis of quality and yield of brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

A study on gene action, combining ability and heterosis for quality and yield attributes in brinjal involving 45 cross combinations from ten diverse inbred lines using a half-diallel method , was conducted. The findings showed that non-additive gene action was more important for yield traits than additive gene action for quality traits like total phenol content, total soluble solids, reducing sugar, non-reducing sugar, total sugar, ascorbic acid and dry matter. Inbreds like NDB-2 and NDB.Sel-16-1 demonstrated a high general combining ability (GCA) for both non-reducing and total sugars. Punjab Sadabahar and NDB-3 demonstrated superiority in total phenol content, whereas NDB-2 and NDB.Sel-19-1 stood out in terms of total soluble solids. NDB-2 also had high GCA for total sugars and dry matter, making it a key inbred for future breeding. The cross NDB-3 × Arka Nidhi exhibited the highest specific combining ability (SCA) for reducing sugars and dry matter, while Pant Samrat × Pusa Purple Long had the highest SCA for total phenol content. Combinations like NDB.Sel-19-1 × NDB-3 for total soluble solids and Punjab Sadabahar × Pusa Kranti for non-reducing sugar were also promising. Over better parent heterosis varied between 17.56% to 72.26% for yield. The range of heterosis over mid-parent varied between 11.93 to 72.74% for yield. The highest heterosis over better parent was recorded in Punjab Sadabahar × Pant Rituraj (72.26 %) followed by Pusa Purple Long × Pant Rituraj (63.36 %) and NDB-2 × Pant Rituraj (55.57 %) for yield. Whereas over mid-parent cross combination Pusa Purple Long × Pant Rituraj (72.74%), Punjab Sadabahar × Pant Rituraj (72.63 %) and Arka Nidhi × Pant Rituraj (65.32%) exhibited maximum heterosis. Overall, the study concluded that improving brinjal for quality traits could be achieved through recurrent selection, while yield enhancement may be pursued through hybridization, paving the way for the development of high-quality, high-yielding brinjal varieties.