Studies on variability, heritability, genetic advance and transgressive segregating in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

Significant variability is available in the F2 population of brinjal. Top crosses of brinjal Biliudda badane × mullu badane produced from F1 generation were in augmented design at ZARS Shimogga in Kharif 2017. They have several characteristics of plant breeding significance with sufficient scope for added improvement to growing conditions. The F2 study showed significant variation for nine quantitative traits. Close estimates between GCV and PCV values indicated lesser influence of environmental factors on the expression of traits under study. In this investigation, the proportion of genetic contribution of high GCV, PCV coupled with high broad sense heritability and genetic advance to the overall phenotypic expression of the studied traits like number of fruits per plant, number primary branches, number of flowers per plant was high, indicating predominant control of additive genes, and these traits could be improved upon by selection without progeny testing. High magnitude of heritability for most of the characters suggested the progress of improvement in yield and its components. Differences in mean values of parents for various characters indicated involvement of diverse parents in the crosses studied. The F2 plants exceeded either of the parents for most of the characters, which seems to be due to transgressive segregation.