Heterosis and Combining Ability for Some Traits of Intraspecific and Interspecific Hybridization Between Solanum Melongena and Solanum Macrocarpon

Abstract

Four parents and their 12 F 1 diallel crosses, involving three parents belonging to the species Solanum melongena L. and one parent belonging to species Solanum macrocarpon L. were used. For heterotic effect, heterosis over mid-parents and better parent were detected in many traits, viz.; plant height(kg), number of branches per plant, and total chlorophyll. Also, heterosis over mid-parents and better parent were detected in early fruit yield per plot(kg), early fruit number per plot and total fruit yield ton/fed. For chemical traits heterosis over mid-parents and better parent were detected in total carotene, anthocyanin content, total nitrogen content, total phosphorus, potassium content and total iron traits. The magnitude of GCA variance was greater than SCA variance suggesting the predominance of additive gene action for most studied traits. Among the varieties, the good general combiner was Balady Dark Long (P 3) for plant height, number of branches per plant, early fruit number per plot, total fruit yield ton/fed and total phosphorus, Balady white Long (P 2) for total chlorophyll, total nitrogen content, potassium content and total iron. Among the varieties, Balady Dark Round (P 1) was the best for early fruit yield per plot and anthocyanin content, In the case of total carotene Gboma (P 4) was the best general combiner. The estimates of specific combining ability effects (SCA) showed superior specific combinations, (P 2 xP 3) for plant height, total fruit yield ton/fed and total phosphorus and (P 1 xP 2) for number of branches per plant, early fruit yield per plot, early fruit number per plot and total iron. While, (P 1 xP 4) was the best for total chlorophyll, total carotene and total nitrogen content, (P 2 xP 4) for potassium content. Regarding, reciprocal effect (rij) the results revealed that highest values recorded for (P 4 x P 1) in the case of plant height(cm), total chlorophyll, total carotene and total iron. While, the hybrid (P 3 x P 1) was the best for number of branches, early fruit yield per plot(kg), early fruit number per plot and anthocyanin content and the hybrid (P 4 x P 2) for total fruit yield(ton/fed) and total phosphorus , the hybrid (P 4 x P 3) for total nitrogen content and the hybrid (P 3 x P 2) was the best for potassium content. Therefore, from general and specific combining ability and some genetic parameters suggested the importance of heterosis breeding for effective utilization of additive genetic variances which had the main role for the improvement of the studied traits in eggplant crop.