Genetic Variability, Heritability and Genetic Advance in Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

Abstract

A field investigation was carried out with 180 genotypes of brinjal to study the genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance of thirteen different characters. Highly significant differences were observed among all the genotypes and characters except days to last picking under study indicating the presence of sufficient amount of variability in all the characters. PCV estimates were higher than their corresponding GCV for all characters studied. GCV was found low for all the characters whereas, PCV was moderate for fruit yield per plant (15.69%) followed by number of fruits per plant (15.43%). High heritability was noticed for fruit length (86.62%), plant height (76.73%), plant spread – EW (72.99%), number of branches per plant (72.12%) and total soluble solid (63.38%). Expected genetic advance was observed to be low for all the characters. Therefore, studied characters may be included in assortment criterion for improvement in fruit yield per plant in brinjal.