Heterosis for quantitative and qualitative traits in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

Abstract

Throughout the last century, brinjal breeding has been based
on various standard methods, which has ultimately resulted
in the development of improved brinjal cultivars and hybrids
having high quality and yield. In the present study,
consisting of 6 diversified genotypes of brinjal along with
their hybrids and one standard check were evaluated during
kharif season under randomized block design with two
replications. Data on quantitative characters were recorded
and better-parent and standard heterosis were determined.
Significant levels of heterosis were detected for all the traits
studied. Pronounced heterosis over standard check was
observed for Plant height 22.49 % in Seetipulam Local ×
Sevathampatti Local, number of branches per plant in Spiny
Local × Sevathampatti Local (46.97 %), fruit yield per plant
in Sevathampatti Local × Spiny Local (34.57%) and number
of fruits per plant fruit in Spiny Local × Manaparai Local
(36.68%). The crosses the highest negative and significant
heterosis was exhibited by the hybrids Sevathampatti Local
× Seetipulam Local and Seetipulam Local × Sevathampatti
Local (-10.06 %) over standard check for earliness (days to
first flowering and days to first harvesting). In this study
Seetipulam Local ×Sevathampatti Local found superior for
most of the characters (earliness and yield/plant) and it can
be commercially exploited after assessing their stability.