Estimates of Genetic Variability, Yield and Quality Traits of Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

The present investigation was carried out involving thirty two genotypes of brinjal with a view to estimate the extent of variability, heritability and genetic advance in per cent of mean. The experiment was conducted in Randomized Block Design with three replications during Kharif, 2020-21. The analysis of variance revealed that mean sum of squares due to genotypes were highly significant for all the traits indicating ample variation among the genotypes for all the traits. High magnitudes of PCV and GCV were observed for some quality traits like non-reducing sugar (34.80% and 34.69%) and ascorbic acid (20.21% and 20.18%). Moderate PCV and GCV were recorded for total fruit yield per plant (16.05% and 15.35%), average fruit weight (16.01% and 15.78%), reducing sugars (14.53% and 14.45%), number of primary branch per plant (13.68% and 13.23%), total phenol content (12.88% and 12.81%) and total sugars (12.14% and 12.07%). While, low PCV and GCV were recorded in fruit circumference (8.34% and 7.71%), total soluble solid (8.04% and 7.79%), days to 50% flowering (7.98% and 7.24%), fruit polar length (7.50% and 4.25%) and number of fruits per plant (6.73% and 6.05%). High estimates of heritability >75% were recorded for all the characters except days to first fruit harvest (59%).The heritability in broad sense ranged from 59 % in case of day to first fruit harvest to 99.90 %for ascorbic acid. High heritability (> 75 %) coupled with high genetic advance in per cent of mean (> 20) were recorded for ascorbic acid (99.90% and 41.50%), non-reducing sugar (99.00% and 71.21%), reducing sugars (99.00% and 29.61%), total phenol content (99.00% and 26.22%), total sugars (99.00% and 24.74 %), average fruit weight (97.00% and 32.03%), number of primary branch per plant (94.00% and 26.37%), total fruit yield per plant (92.00% and 30.26%) and plant height (90.00% and 22.16%)indicating that these traits were less influenced by environment. Thus, there exists ample genetic variability and as consequence scope of improvement in the available germplasm of brinjal.