Variability and Selection Indices in Two F2 Populations of Brinjal from Intra-specific Hybridization

Two F2 populations of brinjal (Solanum melongena L) from intra-specific hybridizations MLC-1 x Longai (oblong) and MLC-3 x Longai (oblong) attempted in 2015-16 were evaluated for eight quantitative traits using genetic variability parameters, heritability, genetic advance, genetic advance as per cent of mean, correlation and selection indices in the year 2017-18. The characters viz., number of fruits per plant (0.794) and number of branches per plant (0.633) recorded positive and highly significant correlations with yield per plant in F2 plants of MLC-1 x Longai (oblong), whereas the characters viz., number of fruits per plant (0.819), average fruit weight (0.700) and fruit volume (0.593) recorded positive and highly significant correlations with yield per plant in F2 plants of MLC-3 x Longai (oblong). Selection indices for yield selection were constructed in both the F2 populations using the characters with highly significant yield correlations. Based on the efficient selection index, the genotypes were given scores or ranks and the best 5% plants were selected in both F2 populations i.e., plant number 2, 12, 10, 3, 11 and 19 in F2 plants of MLC-1 x Longai (oblong) and plant number 105, 28, 107, 26, 22 and 109 in F2 plants of MLC-3 x Longai (oblong) for constituting the third generation, evaluated in the year 2018-19. A comparative evaluation of the performance of the two populations arising from one common parent i.e. Longai showed that population generated from cross MLC-1 x Longai (oblong)was more promising than MLC-3 x Longai (oblong).