Genetic analysis of plant height and number of branches in brinjal {solanum melongena l.)

Abstract

Abstract: The genetics of plant height and number of branches per plant was studied in brinjal using a 5 x 5 diallcl cross. The mean squares due to both general and specific combining ability for these traits were highly significant indicating the importance of both additive and non-additive gene effects. For plant height in most of the cases the cross tall x tall showed positive SCA effect and for number of branches per plant the cross involving the parents having profuse branching showed positive SCA effect. The maximum heterobeltiosis for plant height was 26.40% and 48.45% for number of branches per plant. The genetic components of variation analysis suggested that the proportion of recessive alleles was more than that of dominant alleles for plant height. For number of branches per plant an excess of dominant alleles were present in the parents than the recessive alleles. The plant height was observed to be controlled by two pairs of genes or groups of genes but for number of branches per plant one pair of gene was Involved in controlling the character. The heritability in narrow sense was 69.57 and 38.98% for plant height and number of branches per plant, respectively. The graphical analysis indicated the wide genetic diversity among the parents.