Gene action for important fruit characters in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

Abstract

Generation mean analysis was carried out to assess the presence of inter-allelic interaction and to
estimate the importance of various gene effects for inheritance of six fruit characters in brinjal viz.,
fruit length, fruit diameter, average fruit weight, total number of fruits per plant, early yield per
plant and  yield per plant. Six generations  of five families were used for the study.  Family  wise
estimates of gene effects and type of epistasis were summarized for all six characters. Scaling test
revealed that all four types of scales (A, B, C and D) showed highly significant effect along with the
high values of chi-square (χ2). Both tests (scaling and chi-square) proved that the six parameter
models were adequate for the estimation of gene effects. The joint scaling tests for these characters
showed varied values of gene effects in families for all types of gene effects viz.  Additive  (d),
dominance (h), additive x additive (i), additive x dominance (j) and dominance x dominance (l)  for
different traits. Almost all characters showed duplicate dominance type of epistasis. Based on these
results, inter-mating among selected individuals through recurrent selection and diallel selective
mating system could be an alternative method for improvement of these traits of brinjal.