Genetic variation in phenatic traits of extant varieties of brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

Abstract: This study was conducted using eighty-one extant cultivars of brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) with sixteen diverse morphological and yield contributing traits. All the cultivars were evaluated for four years in field conditions to analyze the unpredictability and heritability, genetic variances, correlation and principal component analysis to extract important traits. In results, the highest value of general mean, variances of genotypic and phenotypic (V_g and V_p), variation (GCV and PCV), heritability (h²) and genetic advance (GA) were found for AFW and indicated the additive gene action. Due to environmental interaction, the highest variance and variation of environment (Ve and ECV) and GA% were recorded for PH, FDPS, and FL/FD ratio. In case of correlation and path coefficient analysis the yield per plant showed positive correlation for various morphological traits excluding NFI, FT and FL/FD ratio. Those traits established positive correlation with direct and indirect effect from yield can be utilized to improve yield capacity. In principal component analysis, the most important characters were categorized into different PCA group e.g., PCA I (AFW), PCA II (FL), PCA III (FD) and PCA IV (FYPP) and may be extracted for observing the superior recombinants.