Brinjal ( Solanum melongena L.) cultivation faces significant challenges, including inconsistent fruit yields, which can hinder productivity and economic returns to farmers. The present study was undertaken to evaluate fruit yield performance in brinjal, with particular emphasis on the contribution of heterosis and genotype × environment interactions influencing yield across the environment. Twelve female and four male parents were crossed in L × T mating design to develop 48 F 1 which were evaluated in RBD over three different geographic locations. Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) molecular markers were used to identify the parental diversity. Parents AB 17–28, AB 19 − 02, AB 19 − 03, and GNRB 1 exhibited excellent general combining ability for fruit yield per plant, along with other yield-related and biochemical traits. Crosses AB 15 − 06 × GNRB 1 (A × G), AB 19 − 03 × Co 2 (G × P) and AB 20 − 12 × GNRB 1 (P × G) exhibited desirable specific combining ability (sca) effects. Based on the dendrogram generated from the dissimilarity matrix, the sixteen brinjal parents were grouped into three major clusters comprising seven, four, and five genotypes, respectively. The genetic distance between AB 17 − 06 and AB 17–28, AB 20 − 02 and AB 17–28 was the largest (0.83). The genetic distance between AB 20 − 07 and GAOB 2 was found to be the lowest at 0.30. Crosses with desirable sca effect, demonstrated the importance of pairing complementary genetic traits. The clustering analysis can be utilized for targeted breeding strategies, with the largest genetic distance offering potential for creating highly heterotic hybrids.
Vaghela et al. (Mon,) studied this question.