Study of combining ability and gene action for fruit yield and its component traits in Brinjal [Solanum melongena L.]

Introduction

Brinjal (Solanum melongena L., 2n = 24), a key vegetable crop of India belonging to the family Solanaceae, is widely known by regional names such as Ringan, Baingan, Vangi and Katharikai. It is believed to have originated in the Indo-Burma region and has been cultivated in India since ancient times. Due to its high adaptability, the crop is extensively grown under tropical and subtropical conditions and is often termed the "poor man's vegetable" because of its affordability and high productivity. Brinjal is nutritionally valuable, containing vitamins like ascorbic acid, niacin and B-complex along with essential minerals such as calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium and iron. The fruits are rich in moisture, fibre and carbohydrates and also possess antioxidant compounds like anthocyanins, especially in purple types. In India, it is widely cultivated in states including West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat and the country ranks among the leading producers globally. The crop shows a high degree of genetic variability in plant growth and fruit traits, which provides good scope for improvement through breeding. Since yield is a complex character controlled by multiple components, effective utilization of this variability is necessary. In this context, heterosis breeding has gained importance as a method to enhance yield and quality traits. Heterosis, or hybrid vigour, contributes significantly to increased productivity and evaluation of hybrid combinations helps identify superior crosses with better performance than their parents and standard varieties. Therefore, estimation of heterosis for yield and its associated traits is essential for identifying promising hybrids suitable for commercial cultivation and future crop improvement programmes.

Materials and Methods

The experimental material comprised of parents and their F 1 derived by crossing among nine parents viz., JBR-24-14, JBR-24-13, JBR-24-12, JBR-24-11, GJB-3, GJLB-4, GRB-7, Pant Rituraj and Pusa Kranti in a half-diallel fashion. (Table 1) Row to row and plant to plant spacing was 60 cm × 30 cm. To produce a better crop, the region's recommended agronomic practices were followed. Nine parental types were selected on the basis of morphological variability for growth, maturity, fruit size, fruit shape, fruit yield and yield contributing trait in brinjal. The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with three replications during rabi-2025-26 at Vegetable Research Station, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh. The observations were recorded on sixteen characters viz., days to first flowering, days to first picking, number of fruits per plant, fruit length (cm), average fruit weight (g), fruit girth (cm), number of branches per plant, plant height (cm), days to last picking, number of pickings, total fruit yield per plant (kg), total soluble solids, fruit borer infestation (%), shoot borer infestation (%), Vitamin-C (100 mg) and total anthocyanin pigment (100 mg) and Mean data were used for statistical analysis. The total variation among F 1 hybrids was partitioned further into variance due to parents, hybrids and their interaction effects, which were used for combining ability analysis (Griffing 1956b) [6] .

Results and Discussion

The analysis of variance for combining ability revealed that mean squares due to general combining ability (GCA) (except number of picking) and specific combining ability (SCA) were significant/highly significant for all the sixteen characters. The magnitude of GCA and SCA variances exhibited that the SCA variances were higher than their respective GCA variances (except total anthocyanin pigment) for all the traits. Thus, non-additive gene action was found for inheritance of traits in this investigation. The gca and sca ratio (σ 2 gca/σ 2 sca) was less than unity, indicating that non-additive components play a comparatively larger role in inheritance. For the attributes, Total anthocyanin pigment the gca and sca ratio (σ 2 gca/σ 2 sca) was greater than unity, indicating that additive components are comparatively more important in the inheritance of these traits. (Table 1) These findings are in concurrence with results of These findings are in concurrence with results of Akpan et al. (2016) [1] , Viradiya (2016) [15] , Dishri and Mishra (2017) [4] , Kumar et al. (2017) [9] , Chaurasia et al. (2018) [3] , Singh et al. (2018) [13] , Siva et al. (2020) [14] , Joshi et al. (2023) [7] , Mishra et al. (2023b) [11] , Patel et al. (2023) [12] , Dudhatra et al. (2024) [5] , Keerthana et al. (2025) [8] , Lokesh et al. (2025) [10] . The preponderance of additive gene actions for total anthocyanin pigment has been akin to Akpan et al. (2016) [1] , Kumar et al. (2017) [6] , Siva et al. (2020) [14] , Joshi et al. (2023) [7] , Mishra et al. (2023b) [11] , Patel et al. (2023) [12] , Dudhatra et al. (2024) [5] , Lokesh et al. (2025) [10] in brinjal. The general combining ability effects of the parents showed that parent GJLB-4 was a good general combiner for number fruits per plant, fruit length, average fruit weight, plant height, fruit borer infestation, shoot borer infestation and total fruits yield per plant. The parent JBR-24-13 was good combiners for fruit yield per plant and also good combiners for yield attributing traits for plant height. (Table 2) Among 36 crosses, the estimation of sca effects found that the best three crosses combinations; JBR-24-14 × JBR-24-11, Pant Rituraj × Pusa Kranti and JBR-24-12 × GJLB-4 identified for fruit yield per plant and some of its related traits. Crosses with high sca effects for fruit yield evolved from good × poor, average × average and good × poor general combiners. The JBR-24-14 × JBR-24-11 exhibited specific combining ability. Hence, such cross combinations should be used for commercial exploitation of heterosis for fruit yield improvement in brinjal. (Table 3) However, Chaudhary et al. (1976) [2] stated that high sca effect would not necessarily mean a high performance by the cross and the estimation of sca effect seemed to be superfluous, as no additional information was obtained by doing so. Therefore, it is suggested that the selection of parents for further breeding programme should be based on gca effect and due consideration should be given to mean value of the cross combination while selecting crosses for specific combining ability effect.

Conclusion

On the basis of the gca effect, GJLB-4, JBR-24-13 and GRB-7 also exhibited high gca effect for fruit yield per plant, Some desirable traits like fruit length, fruit girth, average fruit weight, number of fruits per plant, plant height, fruit and shoot borer infestation, total anthocyanin pigment and total soluble solids. Therefore, these parents were identified as good general combiners and could be preferred in breeding programme as these parents upon crossing, are expected to give desirable segregants in the succeeding generations. On the basis of the sca effect, crosses JBR-24-14 × JBR-24-11, Pant Rituraj × Pusa Kranti and JBR-24-12 × GJLB-4 displayed high sca effect for fruit yield per plant.

The high sca status of the hybrids suggested that significant role was also played by dominance effect. Overall, present investigation suggested that non-additive gene action was important for most of the characters. Therefore, heterosis breeding is the most suitable breeding method for enhancing the fruit yield potential of brinjal.

References

1. Akpan NM, Ogbonna P, Onyia V, Okechukwu E, Atugwu A, Dominic IO. Studies on the variability and combining ability for improved growth and yield of local eggplant genotypes (Solanum melongena L.). Not Sci Biol. 2016;8(2):226-231.
2. Chaudhary BD, Singh RK, Kakar SN. Estimation of genetic parameters in barley (Hordeum vulgare L.). Theor Appl Genet. 1976;45:192-196.
3. Chaurasia NK, Sarmah P, Baruah NS, Sarma D. Combining ability and heterosis studies in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.). Veg Sci. 2018;45(1):68-72.
4. Dishri M, Mishra HN. Estimation of combining ability and gene action studies in round brinjal (Solanum melongena L.). Int J Curr Microbiol Appl Sci. 2017;6(10):3584-3591.
5. Dudhatra KN, Patel MP, Pandya MM. Elucidation of gene action and estimation of combining ability effects for fruit yield attributes and biochemical traits in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.). Electron J Plant Breed. 2024;15(3):612-620.
6. Griffing B. A generalized treatment of the use of diallel crosses in quantitative inheritance. Heredity. 1956;10(1):31-50.
7. Joshi DP, Patel NB, Patel AM, Chaudhary GK. Exploitation of gene action and combining ability for high yielding and good fruit quality characters of brinjal in different environments of Gujarat. Pharma Innov J. 2023;12(8):1370-1374.
8. Keerthana J, Shanthi A, Manikandan M, Aarthi R, Jayalakshmi C. Gene action and combining ability analysis for yield and yield attributing characters in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.). Plant Arch. 2025;25(2):0972-5210.
9. Kumar R, Kumar R, Kumar A, Bharati DK. Estimation of heterosis for yield attributing traits and fruit borer incidence in round brinjal (Solanum melongena L.). Adv Res. 2017;11(3):1-9.
10. Lokesh Y, Singh B, Jha A, Ram CN, Upadhyay DK. Genetics and heterosis of quality and yield of brinjal (Solanum melongena L.). Plant Sci. 2025;12(2):23481900.
11. Mishra SL, Tripathy P, Sahu GS, Lenka D, Mishra MK, Tripathy SK, et al. Study of combining ability and gene action in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) landraces of Odisha. Electron J Plant Breed. 2023;14(2):231-236.
12. Patel HR, Patel AI, Patel HR, Panchal RJ, Ganvit RS. Combining ability and gene action studies for yield and its attributed traits over different environment in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.). Biol Forum Int J. 2023;15(10):1142-1151.
13. Singh AK, Pan RS, Bhavana P. Combining ability and gene action studies in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.). Veg Sci. 2018;45(1):27-30.
14. Siva M, Jyothi UK, Rao DA, Krishna UK, Emmanuel N. Stability studies for growth and yield attributing characters in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) over coastal Andhra Pradesh conditions. J Pharmacogn Phytochem. 2020;9(4):137-142.
15. Viradiya YA. Genetic analysis of yield and its components in eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) during summer season. Int J Agric Sci. 2016;8(48):1-4.