Abstract
Eleven morphologically diverse cultivated eggplant accessions were used for hybridization following half diallel mating design to obtain 55 hybrids. Evaluation of hybrids along with the parents was conducted over two locations followed by randomised complete block design with three replications to study gene action and combining ability of 15 morphological and biochemical traits. The analysis of variance indicated highly significant differences among the environments and interaction of genotype and environment, except for fruit length to width ratio. Additive gene effects were significant for the inheritance of these traits and expression of these additive genes were greatly affected by environments. The general combining ability (GCA) was greater than their respective specific combining ability (SCA) for all traits except for fruit yield per plant. High values of GCA and SCA effects for characters of interest were dispersed among different genotypes. From this study it was observed that the best parental line was BT15 based on days to first flowering, total number of fruits per plant, total soluble solids and total phenol content. Besides, the parent BM5 showed good general combining ability effects for fruit yield per plant, fruit length and fruit length to width ratio and the parent BB1 performed good general combining ability for fruit diameter, fruit girth and fruit weight. Besides, other parents showed the best performance for only one trait. On the other hand, the hybrid BT6 × BT15 was reported bearing early flowering with high total phenol content and the hybrid BM9 × BB26 has high fruit yield with high soluble solids. Besides, the hybrid BM9 × BB1 has a high fruit diameter and fruit weight. All other hybrids except for these three (BT6 × BT15, BM9 × BB26 and BM9 × BB1) were shown the best performance for only one trait. Hence, based on the desired trait, the hybrid can be selected for future use after large scale evaluation.
Highlights
Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.), known as brinjal in Asia, aubergine in French, garden egg in Africa, melanzana in Italy, guinea squash in Southern American and patlican in Turkey, is considered an essential vegetable in many parts of the world [1]
This study evaluates fifteen traits consisting of vegetative, yield, yield-related and antioxidant parameters in eleven parents and 55 and their respective 55 hybrids, which is considered a fair number for obtaining effective estimates of genetic parameters
Genotypes and environment interaction were highly significant for the entire studied trait except for the fruit length to width ratio. These results indicated that both parents and offspring were highly influenced by the environment for all traits except for the fruit length to width ratio
Summary
Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.), known as brinjal in Asia, aubergine in French, garden egg in Africa, melanzana in Italy, guinea squash in Southern American and patlican in Turkey, is considered an essential vegetable in many parts of the world [1]. Due to the rapid increase in human population and the demand for eggplant and decreased cultivated land as a result of urbanization, it is highly required to step up the current yield potential to meet the consumer’s demands Based on this background, several research approaches have been conducted by scientists on pest and disease management, breeding for high fruit yield, physiological method and nutritional method. This study evaluates fifteen traits consisting of vegetative, yield, yield-related and antioxidant parameters in eleven parents and 55 and their respective 55 hybrids, which is considered a fair number for obtaining effective estimates of genetic parameters. The prime objective of this experiment was to investigate the effects of combining ability as well as a genetic system governing fruit yield, yieldrelated components and nutritional quality to identify the best general combining parents and specific combining parents for developing productive hybrid varieties of eggplant
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