Genetic variability, character association and diversity studies in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

An experiment was conducted to assess the existing variability in brinjal germplasm based on Mahalanobis's D² statistic based on nine quantitative traits. The germplasm accessions were classifed into six clusters, in which the highest inter-cluster distance was recorded between clusters III and IV. Cluster I exhibited a low mean estimate for days to 50% fowering; cluster VI showed high estimates of the mean for plant height, the number of primary branches per plant, average fruit weight, and 1000 seed weight. Cluster V recorded the highest number of fruits and fruit yields per plant. Principal component analysis revealed total variability of 53.09 per cent, contributed by PC 1 (30.83%) and PC 2 (23.07%). Traits viz., days to 50% fowering, plant height, an average number of branches per plant, fruit length, and 1000 seed weight contributed positive signifcant component loadings for the frst two PCs. High heritability and high GAM were also recorded for a number of fruits per plant, fruit yield per plant, fruit length, fruit girth, fruit weight, and 1000 seed weight. Fruit yield and the number of fruits per plant were positively and signifcantly associated with each other. Hence, simultaneous selection of these traits is advised for the genetic improvement in the brinjal breeding program.