GENE ACTION OF ECONOMIC TRAITS IN BRINJAL (SOLANUM MELONGENA L.)

Abstract

Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.), known as eggplant, is an indigenous vegetable crop grown in an area of 0.51 m ha with low productivity of 17.73 t/ ha. A number of brinjal hybrids and cultivars are under cultivation throughout the country which differ based on yield, fruit quality (taste, seed to pulp ratio, shelf life, moisture content, blossom-end scar size, etc.) and consumers’ preference (colour, shape, size and shining of fruit, spininess, calyx colour, etc.). Now fruit quality and consumer’s preference are playing a major role in determining its market demand and rate also. The crop exhibits rich genetic diversity for various economic traits and has a great scope for improvement. Based on its rising demand especially of traits of consumers’ preference, it is necessary to develop high yielding high quality cultivars/ hybrids of this crop. The gene actions among economic traits are the basis for initiating the effective breeding programme. Therefore, present study was conceived to generate information on genetic architecture of quantitative traits.