Abstract

ARAMENDIZ-TATIS, HERMES; CARDONA-AYALA, CARLOS  and  VERGARA-CORDOBA, CÉSAR. Genetic parameters related to fruit characteristics in eggplant (Solanum melongena L.). rev.colomb.cienc.hortic. [online]. 2014, vol.8, n.1, pp.103-111. ISSN 2011-2173.

The department of Córdoba is the principal producer of eggplant in the Colombian Caribbean, but the fruit of this vegetable presents wide variation in shape and size, which decreases the quality required by the market and its competitiveness. The aim of this study was to determine the genetic parameters related to fruit shape, fruit firmness, predominant fruit color, diameter and fruit length, weight of seeds per fruit and number of seeds per fruit. 36 lines of eggplant and three commercial controls, under a design of augmented blocks with nine blocks and experimental units of two rows of 10 m with distances between rows and plants of 1 m, were evaluated. Analysis of variance revealed significant and highly significant differences for all the studied characteristics, between the controls, the lines and, the contrast between controls and lines, revealing the existence of genetic variability. The coefficient of genetic variation ranged between 7.33% and 42.79% for all traits, and between 60.45% and 89.97% for heritability (moderate). The genetic advance was high for fruit firmness, number of seeds per fruit and weight of seeds per fruit, for which simple selection methods can modify the structure of the population.

Keywords : genetic gain; genetic variability; heritability; gene action.

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