Predicting and evaluating hybrid performance is essential in eggplant (Solanum melongena) breeding. Based on this background, 55 F1 hybrids derived from 11 × 11 half-diallel fashion were evaluated on agronomic and morphological conventional descriptors in two locations. The phenotypic correlation coefficients reveal that fruit production per plant showed a significant positive correlation with all of the studied traits that are directly related to production. Different genetic components of variation were also calculated for all the studied characters. Almost all the characters showed significant environmental effects except the number of main stems per plant and fruit production per plant. The value of mean squares for GCA was larger than those values of SCA for all variables except fruit production per plant, demonstrating that the additive gene action predominated for both locations. Additionally, Baker’s ratio for the characters under investigation ranged from 0.66 to 0.98, showing that the additive effect is prevalent among the evaluated characters. The dominant genetic effects (b) were smaller than additive genetic effects (a) of all the studied characters except for fruit production per plant. Positive dominance (H1 and H2) values were obtained for all the studied characters, proving the significance of non-additive components in the inheritance of these characters. Moreover, the value of h2/H2 was less than one for all the studied characters revealing that one major gene group was involved for all characters. Therefore, it was indicated that hybrid breeding might be effectively employed to increase production and improve quality attributes in eggplant.

Keywords: Coefficient of correlation, Eggplant, Genetic analysis, Half diallel, Vr-Wr graph