Fruits and vegetables constitute
indispensable components of a balanced human diet, supplying essential
vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and dietary fiber that contribute to the prevention
of chronic diseases (Slavin and Lloyd, 2012). Recent nutritional evaluations
further emphasize the functional role of vegetable-derived phytochemicals in
promoting metabolic and cardiovascular health. Among vegetable crops, brinjal (Solanum
melongena L.), commonly known as eggplant or aubergine, is valued for its
nutritional richness and phytochemical composition.
Brinjal is one of the oldest
domesticated vegetable crops, originating in Southeast Asia, and exhibits
extensive morphological and genetic diversity. The crop shows remarkable
variation in fruit shape, size, pigmentation, and plant architecture, making it
an important model for genetic improvement studies. Modern diversity
assessments have confirmed substantial variability among cultivated genotypes
for yield and component traits (Perumalu Bhuvaneswari et al., 2023).
India remains one of the largest producers of brinjal globally, with widespread
cultivation across diverse agro-climatic regions. The different biological and
climatic factors are accountable for decreasing the yield of eggplant in India
(Singh et al., 2025). However, average productivity remains below
potential levels due to limited exploitation of genetic variability and
vulnerability to biotic and abiotic stresses. Contemporary studies have
reported significant phenotypic variability among genotypes for growth, yield,
and quality attributes, emphasizing the need for systematic evaluation under
field conditions (Perumalu Bhuvaneswari et al., 2023).
The
strains of cross-pollinated crops are very valuable because they play a crucial
role in the launch and development of new varieties that can survive in the
present-day scenario, as well as in showing resistance against various animate
and inanimate factors. So, there is a serious requirement to preserve and
explore these strains through various breeding programmes. These strains
provide the flexibility of a breeder to create economically and climate-resilient
varieties. The magnitude of variability components defines the crop
effectiveness in a breeding programme. From a plant breeding perspective,
assessment of inherent parameters such as phenotypic and genotypic coefficient
of variation, heritability, and genetic advance remains fundamental.
The researcher can determine the
degree to which environmental (abiotic) factors impact yield and yield-related
traits by assessing genotypic and phenotypic variation in yield across various
crop strains (Ullah et al., 2012). Heritability estimates are very
useful for breeders to allocate resources effectively to identify desirable
traits and to achieve the highest genetic gain in a timely and cost-effective
manner (Smalley et al., 2004). Traits with high heritability can be
rapidly improved through simple selection. Heritability, as a genetic
component, holds no practical value on its own without accompanying genetic
progress. The amount of heritable genetic variation accumulated in a trait
under selection pressure is referred to as genetic progress (Bello et al.,
2012). The coefficient of variation indicates the extent of genetic variability
in various economic traits, but it does not account for the heritable portion. Classical quantitative genetic principles
(Johnson et al., 1955) continue to underpin modern variability analysis,
while recent empirical evaluations confirm that heritability, coupled with
genetic advance, provides reliable prediction of the selection response
(Pradhan et al., 2024).
