Vol. 12, Issue 5 (2023)

Author(s):
D Rameshkumar, E Naveena, S Senthilnathan and Balu D

Abstract:
Heterosis (Or hybrid vigor) results in a hybrid’s phenotypic superiority over its founder parents for quantitative and qualitative traits. Hybrid vigor is defined by mechanisms such as dominant complementation, over-dominance, and epistasis. Eggplant, originated from India, is the most important crop among solanaceous vegetables of the world. The improvement work was concentrated in several organizations with the objective to develop high yielding varieties which are resistant to biotic and abiotic stresses. During recent past, hybrids in vegetables have become very popular and bringing huge returns to the farmers. Considering the economic and nutritional significance of eggplant, breeding efforts focus on developing high-yielding varieties mostly F₁ hybrids with important traits. These hybrids have high yield potential, good adaptability resistance to biotic and abiotic stress and recommended for commercial cultivation in different agro-climatic conditions. Successful exploitation of heterosis in eggplant resulted in considerable improvement with respect to quantitative traits. In this direction, heterosis will be useful for developing most beneficial hybrid and hence a review on previous work in this line is presented.