1 J. Hortl. Sci. Vol. 17(2) : 00-00, 2022 This is an open access article d istributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommer cial-ShareAl ike 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, d istribution, and reproduction in any med ium, provide d the original author and source are credited. Short Communication INTRODUCTION Brinjal is one of the most important solanaceous vegetables next to tomato, potato and chilli. Brinjal is enriched with high net content of nutrients like carbohydrates, proteins, and edible good fats, along with some minerals, vitamins, antioxidants and seconda r y meta bolites. E ggp la nt is b a sica lly originated from India during 300 B.C. to 300 A.D. and distributed all across the country. Brinjal is economically grown as annual crop though it is a perennial plant. Eggplant mainly bears gradient violet big solitary flower but some cultivars or species bears clustered inflorescence with variable tinge color with five peta ls, five sepa ls, five stamens and variable length of stigma i.e., long styled, medium styled and short styled flowers. Eggplant is hardy crop and even sustains prolonged stress periods but many studies have been reported there was decrease in fruit yield upon increased moisture deficiency. In eggplant upon increased drought there would be sequential decrease in fruit length, circumference, width, average fruit weight, p la nt height , da ys f or f lower init ia t ion a nd increased number of fruits and branches (Faizan et al., 2021c) which would be drought susceptible t r a it s . W her ea s , inc r ea s ed lea f chlor op hyll, membrane stability index, relative tissue water, epiculticular wax, root length, volume and number of seconda r y r oots would be dr ought tolera nt character for genotype selection (Faizan et al., 2 0 2 1 b ) mor e over u p on dr ou ght indu c t ion cytological and molecular changes will also occur like certain gene expressivity (Faizan et al., 2021a). Screening genotypes based on particular trait or a character can be done on its genetic values like phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variance, broad sense heritability as well genetic advance over mean that would help breeder to understand or find out material genetic variability and study influence of environment over trait exhibition while select ing elite genotypes. As f r u it yield is a dependent trait majorly governed by additive gene a ction with the association of differ ent tr aits. Therefore, it was directed that association studies of yield and yield components is an elementary protocol to find out elite genotypes upon correlated t r a it or c ha r a c t er. C ha r a c t er a s s oc ia t ion or correlation analysis is an appropriate statistical method to quantify the degree, range and explain na t u r e of r ela t ions hip s ha r ing b et ween t wo variables based on its intensity of association. Phenotypic trait association studies in brinjal upon drought stress Faizan M.*a, Harish Babu B.N.b, Lakshmana D.a, Ganapathi M.a and Rakshith M.a aDepartment of Genetics and Plant Breeding, College of Horticulture, Mudigere, bZonal Agricultural and Horticultural Research Station, Hiriyur, University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Shivamogga, Karnataka, India. *Corresponding author Email : faizanscf@gmail.com ABSTRACT Eggplant is popularly known as poor man’s vegetable. With respect to present situation of climatic challenges, fruit yield of eggplant is reduced due to drought or moisture stresses. In view of this condition, an experiment was aimed to study character association between yield and yield components in eggplant. The resultant outcome from correlation analysis computed among nine eggplant characters indicated that traits like plant height and total plant length at harvesting, fruit length and number of fruits per plant significantly correlated with fruit yield per plant. Whereas, traits like plant height and total plant length observed at harvesting stage, number of days for flower initiation, number of primary branches, fruit length and average fruit weight were significantly associated with fruit yield per plant under moisture stressed condition. Keywords: Brinjal, drought, fruit yield, moisture stress and phenotypic correlation. 2 Faizan et al J. Hortl. Sci. Vol. 17(2) : 00-00, 2022 Our primary aim was to study the effect of moisture str ess on physiologica l, r oot, yield a nd yield components and evaluation of genetic values present in research incurred material for experiment. In addition to these, in this experiment we are aiming to exhibit yield component association or relationship towards fruit yield. Country wide collected fifty eggplant genotypes (Table 1) were sown in portray after treating with carbendazim and etiolated for three days and after 30 days of sowing seedlings were transplanted into pots. Experiment was designed with factorial completely random design which includes two factors viz., (a) drought conditions (Normal moisture condition/control Table 1. List of eggplant genotypes used in the present experiment Sl. Name of the Sources of No. genotype Collection 1. Pusa Upkar IIVR, VARANASI, 2. Arka Kranti UTTAR PRADESH 3. Bhagyamati 4. Pusa Ankur 5. Pusa Bindu 6. Punjab Sadabahar 7. Aruna 8. Shobha 9. Swarna Manjari 10. CH-215 11. Jawahar Brinjal-8 12. Jawahar Brinjal-69 13. R-2580 Vegetable Research 14. R-2594 Station Kalyanpur, 15. R-2591 Uttar Pradesh 16. Malapur Local 17. L-2232 18. R-2581 19. L-2230 20. M4 College of 21. M21 Horticulture, 22. M17 Mudigere 23. Mattigulla 24. Ramdurga 25. Melavanki 26. M19 27. Very Green Long Zonal Research 28. IIHR-322 Station, Chianky, 29. Pant Samrat Palamu, Jharkhand 30. IIHR-7 31. Long Green 32. Swarna Pratibha 33. Swarna Mani 34. Early Round Market Hiriyur Local 35. Rampur Local Collection 36. Hebbal Gulla (Chitradurga, 37. Round Green Karnataka) 38. IC354140 NBPGR, 39. IC90785 New Delhi 40. IC99676- Long 41. IC99676- Round 42. IC90691 43. IC354597-Round 44. Suvarna GP098 Suvarna Seeds Pvt. Ltd. 45. Vijaya ARBH98 Vijaya Seeds Pvt. Ltd. 46. CO-2 TNAU, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 47. Solanum macrocarpon College of Horticulture, Bangalore 48. Solanum indicum 49. Solanum torvum 50. Solanum mammosum 3 Phenotypic trait association studies in brinjal upon drought stress Fig. 1. Heatmap for comparative mean performance of eggplant genotypes over growth and yield parameters. X1- Plant height @ 90 DAT (cm), X2- Total Plant Length @ 90DAT (cm), X3- Number of days for flower initiation, X4- Number of primary branches/plants, X5- Fruit length (cm), X6- Fruit circumference (cm), X7- Average fruit weight (g), X8- Number of fruits per plant, X9- Fruit yield (g/plant); S- Moisture stress condition, n- Normal Moisture condition 4 Faizan et al Ta bl e 2. E st im at es o f ph en ot yp ic c or re la tio n co ef fic ie nt s fo r 12 d iff er en t ch ar ac te rs in eg gp la nt g en ot yp es u nd er n or m al m oi st ur e an d m oi st ur e st re ss T ra it s M oi st ur e X 1 X 2 X 3 X 4 X 5 X 6 X 7 X 8 X 9 C on di ti on X 1 r n 1. 00 0 0. 76 8* ** 0. 29 9* ** 0. 16 1* -0 .3 32 ** * -0 .1 96 * -0 .1 6* -0 .0 09 -0 .3 72 ** r s 1. 00 0 0. 66 9* ** 0. 18 1* 0. 04 3 0. 01 9 -0 .1 63 * -0 .3 08 ** * 0. 14 5 -0 .2 94 ** * X 2 r n 1. 00 0 0. 26 7* ** -0 .0 32 -0 .3 23 ** * -0 .1 7* -0 .1 77 * 0. 00 4 -0 .3 18 ** * r s 1. 00 0 0. 31 5* ** 0. 09 6 -0 .1 32 -0 .2 43 ** * -0 .3 73 ** 0. 17 * -0 .4 12 ** * X 3 r n 1. 00 0 -0 .0 74 -0 .3 71 ** * 0. 05 3 -0 .0 7 0. 06 1 -0 .1 52 r s 1. 00 0 0. 05 7 -0 .1 44 -0 .0 29 -0 .1 7* 0. 12 7 -0 .3 16 ** * X 4 r n 1. 00 0 -0 .0 62 -0 .0 83 -0 .1 49 0. 14 1 -0 .0 44 r s 1. 00 0 -0 .3 86 ** * 0. 02 5 -0 .1 94 * 0. 15 8 -0 .2 63 ** * X 5 r n 1. 00 0 0. 11 8 0. 25 8* ** 0. 01 7* 0. 40 9* ** r s 1. 00 0 0. 08 9 0. 16 5* -0 .2 82 * 0. 27 2* ** X 6 r n 1. 00 0 0. 65 1* ** -0 .4 26 ** 0. 14 7 r s 1. 00 0 0. 52 7* ** -0 .4 81 ** 0. 14 1 X 7 r n 1. 00 0 -0 .5 07 ** 0. 13 8 r s 1. 00 0 -0 .5 92 ** 0. 39 2* ** X 8 r n 1. 00 0 0. 53 3* ** r s 1. 00 0 0. 03 6 X 9 r n 1. 00 0 r s 1. 00 0 * - Si gn if ic an ce @ 0 .5 ( r> 0. 16 ), * * - Si gn if ic an ce @ 0 .0 1 (r >0 .2 09 ), * ** - S ig ni fi ca nc e @ 0 .0 05 ( r> 0. 22 8) , ** * - Si gn if ic an ce @ 0 .0 01 ( r> 0. 26 6) ; r n: c or re la tio n fo r no rm al m oi st ur e pl an ts ; r s : c or re la tio n fo r m oi st ur e st re ss ed p la nt s. X 1- P la nt h ei gh t @ 9 0 D AT ( cm ), X 2- T ot al P la nt L en gt h @ 9 0D AT ( cm ), X 3- N um be r of d ay s fo r flo w er i ni tia tio n, X 4- N um be r of p rim ar y br an ch es /p la nt s, X 5- F ru it le ng th ( cm ), X 6- F ru it ci rc um fe re nc e (c m ), X 7- A ve ra ge f ru it w ei gh t (g ), X 8- N um be r of f ru its p er p la nt , X 9- F ru it yi el d (g /p la nt ). 5 Phenotypic trait association studies in brinjal upon drought stress and moisture stress condition); (b) 50 eggplant genotypes with three replications. Moisture stress was induced for about 15 days during two critical stages of eggplant i.e., flower initiation and fruit initiation stage. Furthermore, drought level was monitored by tensiometer r egula ted a t 85 centiba r s. Upon experimentation, traits like number of days taken for flower initiation, plant height, total plant length, number of primary branches per plants, fruit length, fruit circumference, average fruit weight, number of fruits per plant, fruit yield per plant were recorded. Phenotypic correlation coefficient was done for moisture stress (rs) and normal moisture condition (rn) with the help of WINDOWSTAT V.7.2. The phenotypic correlation coefficient was calculated by using mean data (Fig. 1) obtained from fifty eggplant genotypes after analyzing for variation. Significant variation was observed for all the eight traits except for the number of days for flower initiation. Plant yield is a complex trait and direct selection for this character based on genetic estimates alone is not enough. Fruit yield is dependent on various other indirect component traits like plant height, number of branches, fruit length, fruit circumference, average fruit weight, etc. An acquaintance on the relationship between these traits helps in attaining the improved yield. A phenotypic correlation coefficient is an important appliance for the breeder which helps in selection of genotype for a complex trait through the selection of simpler traits. In this aspect, several studies reported significant relationships among the different pairs of the assorted characters of eggplant (Abd-El-Hadi et al., 2004, Melad et al., 2005). The phenotypic correlation of coefficient for both normal moisture (rn) and moisture stress condition (rs) has been presented in Table 2. Fruit yield per plant in normal moisture has recorded a significant association with four traits viz., negative association with plant height at harvesting stage (rn= -0.372), total plant length at harvesting stage (rn= - 0.318) and positive association with fruit length (rn= 0.409) and number of fruits per plant (rn= 0.533). Whereas, in case of moisture stress condition, six characters viz., negative association with plant height at harvesting stage (rS=-0.294), total plant length at harvesting stage (rS= -0.412), number of days for flower initiation (rS= -0.316), number of primary branches (rS= -0.263) and positive association with fruit length (rS= 0.272) and average fruit weight (rS= 0.392) had significant correlation with fruit yield per plant. Under normal moisture condition, fruit yield per plant had a non-significant association with number of days for flower initiation, number of primary branches per plants, fruit circumference and average fruit weight. Wherea s, under moisture stress condition fruit circumference and number of fruits per plant are non- significantly associated with fruit yield per plant. Under normal moisture, fruit yield per plant had significant association with plant height and total plant length at harvesting, fruit length and stage number of fruits per plant. This explains that fruit yield per plant increases upon increase in degree of the traits and these traits are having strong inherent association with fruit yield per plant. However, under moisture stress, plant height and total plant length at harvesting stage, number of days for flower initiation, number of primary branches, fruit length and average fruit weight showed significant association with fruit yield per plant. This explains that throughout moisture stress fruit yield increases upon decreased rate plant height and total plant length at harvesting stage, number of days for flower initiation and number of primary branches. Whereas, fruit length and average fruit weight increased upon moisture stress condition this because of material which incurred for experimentation constitutes of maximum drought tolerant germplasm. The positive significant association between fruit length, average fruit weight and number of fruits per plant with fruit yield per plant is in conformity with the findings of Kranthi and Celine (2013); Singh and Kumar (2004); Nayak and Nagre (2013); Akter and Rahman (2019). However, the negative significant correlation between plant height and total plant length at harvesting stage, number of days for flower initiation and number of primary branches with fruit yield per plant is similar with the resulted reported by Gobu (2015); Dhaka and Soni (2014); Thirumurugan (1997), Reddy (2003) and Murugavel (2006). REFERENCES Abd-El-Hadi, A.H., El-Adl, A.M., El-Diasty, Z.M. and El-Zaghauy, E.A. 2004. Estimation of heterosis, inbreeding depression and genetic parameters associated with them on some economica l tr a its of eggpla nt (Solanum 6 Faizan et al melongena L.). Zagazig J. Agric. Res., 31(5): 2207-2222. Akter, A. and Rahman, H. 2019. Genetic diversity studies of eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) genotypes. Res. & Reviews: J., 8(1): 42-57. Dhaka, S.K. and Soni, A.K. 2014. Genotypic and phenotypic cor r ela tion study in br inja l genotypes. Ann. Plant Soil Res., 16(1): 53-56. Fa iza n, M. , Har ish Ba bu, B.N. , Fakrudin, B., Lakshmana, D. and Rakshith, M. 2021a. In silico identification and annotation of drought responsive candidate genes in Solanaceous plants. International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts. 9(1):2320-2882. Faizan, M., Harish Babu, B.N., Lakshmana, D., Ga na pa thi, M. and Rakshith, M. 2021b. Physiological and root growth response of eggplant genotypes upon drought stress and assessment of genetic parameters at different developmental stage. Int. J. Eco. Environ. Sci., 3(4):22-33. Faizan, M., Harish Babu, B.N., Lakshmana, D., Ganapathi, M. and Rakshith, M. 2021c. Investigation on response of growth and yield characters of eggplant over moistures stress and dissection of genetic parameters. Int. J. Chem. Stu., 9(5): 08-14. Gobu, R. 2015. Studies on genetic variability in eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) genotypes for drought tolerance and yield, M. Sc., Thesis, University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences, Shivamogga. Kranthi, R.G. and Celine, V.A. 2013. Correlation and path analysis studies in round fruited brinjal. Veg. Sci., 40(1): 87-89. Melad, H.Z., Saleeb, F.S. and Salama, G.M. 2005. Combining ability and correlation between yield a nd differ ent cha r a cter s in eggpla nt for producing high quality of local hybrids. J. Agric. Sci., 30(1): 513-532. Murugavel, M. 2006. Studies on genetic divergence in eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) M.Sc. (Ag.) Thesis, Annamalai Univ., Annamalai Nagar, India. Nayak, B.R. and Nagre, P.K. 2013. Genetic variability and correlation studies in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.). Int. J. Appl. Biol. Pharma. Tech., 4(4): 211-215. Reddy, N.G. 2003. Studies on genetic variability and corr elation in segrega ting gener ations of eggplant (Solanum melongena L.). M.Sc. (Ag.) Thesis, Annamalai Univ., Annamalai Nagar. Singh, O. and Kumar, J. 2004. Correlation and path analysis in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.). Veg. Sci., 31(2): 161-163. Thirumurugan, T. 1997. Studies on genetic divergence in eggplant (Solanum melongenaL.). M.Sc. (Ag.) Thesis, Annamalai Univ., Annamalai Nagar.