VARIABILITY, CORRELATION AND PATH COEFFICIENT ANALYSIS IN BRINJAL (Solanum melongena L.)

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted during October, 2013 to March, 2014 to study the genetic variability, correlation and path coefficient analysis for 10 quantitative traits with 12 genotypes of Brinjal in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) design with three replications. All the genotypes varied significantly with each other for all the studied characters indicated the presence of inherent genetic variations among the genotypes. The phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was slightly higher than the respective genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) for all the characters under study indicating that the characters were less influenced by the environment. Moderate PCV and GCV were estimated in secondary branches per plant, fruits per plant, fruit length and fruit diameter. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance presents in plant height, days to maturity, fruit per plant, average fruit weight, fruit diameter and fruit length that were normally more helpful in predicting the genetic gain under selection. High heritability along with low genetic advance presents in plant height (91.99%), days to maturity (93.93%), fruits per plant (83.17%) and fruit diameter (95.37%). High heritability suggested the major role of genetic constitution in the expression of characters, and such traits were considered to be dependable from breeding point of view. Genotypic correlation coefficients were of higher in magnitude than the corresponding phenotypic correlation coefficients, which might be due to masking or modifying effect of environment. Very close values of genotypic and phenotypic correlations were also observed between some character combinations, such as days to maturity with fruits per plant, plant height with fruit length, days to maturity with fruit length etc., which might be due to reduction in error (environmental) variance to minor proportions. Secondary branches per plant (0.333) showed significant positive correlation with fruit yield per plant at genotypic level. Highly significant and negative correlation found in days to maturity comparing with fruit yield per plant both the genotypic (-0.648) and phenotypic (-0.608) level. Path analysis revealed that primary branches per plant, secondary branches per plant, fruit length and average fruit weight showed positive direct effects on yield per plant at genotypic level. On the other hand, secondary branches per plant, fruit length and average fruit weight showed positive direct effects on yield per plant at phenotypic level. Considering the present study, secondary branches per plant, fruit length and average fruit weight could be consider important yield contributing characters for future hybridization program.