Character association and path analysis studies in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) genotypes

Abstract

Character association and path analysis in sixty genotypes of brinjal was studied for 17 important characters. The character association studies revealed that the total yield per plant had significant and positive association with plant height (0.385), plant spread (0.660), number of primary branches (0.545), stem girth (0.539) at 90 days after transplanting (DAT), early yield per plant, number of fruits per plant and fruit diameter. While it was negatively and significantly associated with days to first flowering (-0.302 and -0.230), days to 50 per cent flowering (-0.272 and 0.229) and days to first fruit maturity (-0.164 and -0.168) at both genotypic and phenotypic level. Narrow differences between the genotypic and phenotypic correlation coefficients were observed for various traits in the present findings. This indicates the lesser influence of the environment in the expression of these traits and presence of strong inherent association among the traits. Path analysis studies revealed that significant positive association at genotypic level among the traits viz., plant height (0.235), leaf area (at 90 DAT) (0.228), days to first fruit maturity (0.162), number of fruits per cluster (0.280) and early yield per plant (1.903) had exhibited true association with direct effect on yield per plant. The direct selection for these traits would be rewarding for improvement in the total yield per plant.

Assessment of Genetic Variability, Heritability and Genetic Advance in Brinjal (Solanum Melongena L.)

“…Days to 50% flowering and days to first harvest showed high heritability and low genetic advance as per cent of mean, which indicated that the expression of these characters were governed by non-additive genes. Above research is in accordance with the findings of Vaishya et al (2017) and Mangai et al (2017).…”

Correlation coefficients and path analysis studies for yield and quality traits in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

“…Similarly, number of branches per plant significantly and positively correlated with number of flowers per cluster, number of fruits per cluster, number of fruits per plant, fruit length, average fruit weight and fruit yield per plant suggesting that increase in number of branches would lead to increase in number of flowers per cluster which leads to produced more number of fruits per plant having higher fruit length resulting higher total yield. These results were in accordance with Mangi et al (2017) [15] ; Kumar et al (2018) [12] ; Tiwari et al (2019) [27] ; Chithra et al (2020) [4] and Dash et al (2020) [5] . 1.0000 PH: Plant height (cm), NBP: Number of branches/plant, PSEW: Plant spread in east to west (cm) direction, PSNS: Plant spread in north to south (cm) direction, DFF: Days to first flowering, DF50: Days to 50% flowering (DAT), DFFP: Days to first fruit picking (DAT), FLC: Number of flowers/cluster, FRC: Number of fruits/cluster, FRP: Number of fruits/plant, PFS: Percent fruit set, FL: Fruit length (cm), FD: Fruit diameter (cm), AFW: Average fruit weight (g), FYPP: Fruit yield per plant (kg), TFY: Total fruit yield (q/ha), TWS: Test weight of seed (g), DM: Dry matter content (%), TPrC: Total protein content (g/100 g of fruit), pH: Fruit pH, TSS: Total soluble solid (°Brix), AAC: Ascorbic acid content (mg/100 g of fruit), CHL: Chlorophyll content of leaf (mg/g), TPhC: Total phenol content (mg/g of fruit).…”

“…Such a high level of genotypic association may be the result of the masking effect of environment. This shows that even though there was a significant degree of genotypic correlation between the two variables, the phenotypic expression was inherent relationship between the two investigated characters, which was also supported by Dhaka and Soni (2014) [8] ; Ibaad et al (2016) [10] ; Mangi et al (2017) [15] ; Singh et al (2020) [24] ; Vethamonai et al (2020) [29] ; and Rameshkumar et al (2021) [17] . Out of twenty-four characters, number of fruits per cluster, number of fruits per plant, plant spread in north-south direction, percent fruit set, plant height, average fruit weight, plant spread in east-west direction, chlorophyll content of leaf, ascorbic acid content, number of flowers per cluster, number of branches per plant, fruit pH, fruit diameter, dry matter content, test weight of seeds, total protein content and total phenol content exhibited a positive significant correlation at both genotypic and phenotypic levels with fruit yield per plant, respectively.…”

Analysis of Genetic Variability and Heritability in Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) Genotypes

“…[20], Ravali et al [21] and Tirkey et al [22] Low PCV and GCV obtained for different characters were supported by the findings of Vidya and Kumar [23], Mangi et al [24], Verma et al [25], Jirankali et al [18] and Bende et al [16].…”