MSc.

The present study entitled “Genetic evaluation for yield and resistance to phomopsis blight in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)” was conducted at College of Agriculture, Vellayani with 32 brinjal genotypes collected from various parts of India to identify suitable genotypes of brinjal resistant to phomopsis blight caused by Phomopsis vexans through pot culture screening and yield evaluation in field.
Out of 32 genotypes artificially screened against phomopsis blight, based on the percentage disease index, none was found to be resistant to the disease. SM 9 (12.22), SM 23 (16.67) and SM 25 (12.22) were moderately resistant to the disease. But in field conditions, both SM 9 (599.13g) and SM 25 (607.93g) were poor yielders, while SM 23 (1416.20g) was relatively mediocre.
The field experiment was conducted in RBD and the genotypes differed significantly for all the characters studied. SM 11(2509.73g) was the highest yielder and also it recorded maximum number of fruits per plant (43.8). Longest fruits were produced by SM 19 (14.95 cm) while the heaviest fruits by SM 26 (72.93 g) which was on par with SM 19 (71.13 g). SM 25, SM 27 and SM 30 were moderately resistant to borer infestation. No incidence of phomopsis blight was noticed in the field.
High estimates of heritability coupled with high genetic advance as percentage of mean was observed for all the characters studied.
Yield per plant showed significant positive correlation with number of fruits per plant, fruits per cluster, fruit length, fruit weight and primary branches both at phenotypic and genotypic levels. Path analysis revealed that fruits per plant and fruit weight are the major contributors to the yield. It also indicated that both fruit length and fruits per cluster had appreciable indirect effects through fruits per plant on yield.
Mahalanobis' D2 statistics was employed to study genetic divergence among 32 genotypes and were grouped into five clusters on the basis of relative magnitude of D2 values using Tocher’s method. Cluster I accommodated maximum number of genotypes and in sequence clusters were having 15, 10, 5, 1 and 1 genotypes respectively. The maximum inter-cluster distance was observed between II and V. It has been observed that there was no close correspondence between geographical distribution and genetic divergence.
SM 26 ranked 6th based on selection index with considerable yield and also was tolerant to borer infestation in the field and only moderately susceptible to phomopsis blight in the pot culture.
SM 11 was the highest yielder in field, but it was susceptible to phomopsis blight in pots. On the other hand, SM 25 was moderately resistant to phomopsis blight in pot but was a poor yielder in field. Therefore, SM 11 and SM 25 along with SM 26 can be used in hybridization programme to obtain better cultivars with high yield, tolerance to phomopsis blight and borer infestation.