Genetic divergence in Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

Abstract

Brinjal or egg plant (Solanum melongena L.) is one of the most common and principal vegetable crop grown in India. Fruit yield of brinjal is a polygenic in nature and is influenced by environmental factors. A great extent of divinity present in various quantitative traits among the genotypes of brinjal suggested good scope for improvement in economic traits through conventional breeding. In heterosis breeding programme, the diversity of parents is always emphasized. The D2 statistics has been found to be powerful tool to estimate genetic divergence among populations (Sharma and Maurya 2004). Similarly the diversity of parental material is the basic requirement of any breeding programme. More diverse the parents within a reasonable range, better are the chances of improving economic characters under consideration, in the resulting off springs. It also helps to know the relative distances between these varieties for the characters under study. The aim of forming clusters and finding the intra and inter cluster divergence is to provide the base of selecting parents for a planned breeding programme. The present investigation was carried out to study the genetic divergence in promising brinjal germplasm.