Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2019) 8(6): 2903-2912 2903 Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2019.806.349 Genetic Analysis for Fruit Yield and Its Component Characters in Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) Raju Shyadambi * , M.H. Sapovadiya, S.B. Chaudhari, N. C. Ghadage and D. Dinesh Varma Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh, Gujarat (India) - 362 001 *Corresponding author ABSTRACT Introduction Vegetables are certain parts of plants that are consumed by humans as food as part of a savory meal. It can be eaten either raw or cooked and play an important role in human nutrition, being mostly low in fat and carbohydrates, but high in vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber. India is the second largest producer of vegetables in the world, next to China. Brinjal is one of the most important tender fruit vegetable crops of our country grown during rainy (kharif), winter (rabi) and spring (summer) seasons. Brinjal or eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) originated in India which is also considered as center of diversity (Genebus, 1963). It is an International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 8 Number 06 (2019) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com The present investigation was undertaken with a view to generate genetic information on gene effects for 14 quantitative traits in brinjal through generation mean analysis. The experimental material consists of six generations, namely P 1 , P 2 , F 1 , F 2 , B 1 and B 2 of four crosses in brinjal viz., AB-15-07 x GJLB-4 (cross 1), JBR-14-07 x Pant Rituraj (cross 2), NSR-01 x Swarnmani Black (cross 3) and NBR-14-05 x GJB-03 (cross 4). The results indicated that the magnitude and type of gene effects differed for the same trait in different cross combinations. Therefore, for the improvement of particular trait, segregating generations of individual crosses should be handled according to the gene action involved in its inheritance. Additive [d], dominance [h], additive x additive, dominance x dominance gene actions were equally important for days to opening of first flower, fruit length (cross 1 and cross 2), fruit girth, number of fruits per plant (except cross 4), plant height, days to last picking (except cross 1), average fruit weight (except cross 4), fruit yield (except cross 4), number of picking (except cross 3), total phenol, total soluble solids (except cross 2) and fruit borer infestation. Classification of gene action showed importance of duplicate type of gene action for most of the characters in most of the crosses. Breeding procedure involving multiple crosses, biparental crosses may be restored to get transgressive segregants. This is especially important to develop inbred lines having superiority in different characters. Such lines can give better hybrids. While in case of complementary type of epistasis, material can be utilized directly in breeding programme. Keywords Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.), Epistasis, Generation mean analysis and Gene action Accepted: 20 May 2019 Available Online: 10 June 2019 Article Info