Abstract

Brinjal or Aubergine or Eggplant, one of the top ten growing vegetables incurs serious crop losses due to shoot and fruit borer from season to season especially under high humidity leading to population buildup reducing the crop yield up to 60–70%. This present investigation was carried out during 2018–19 at Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu, India using 36 genotypes and landraces to identify stable genotypes of eggplant with high yield and resistance to shoot and fruit borer. The genotypes were also characterized using eleven SSR markers, where three were not amplified. The AMMI and GGE biplot analyses have shown the significant contribution of genotypic variation over the environments and their interaction. AMMI and GGE analysis revealed that ICO361838 was the most stable genotype for fruit yield per plant, whereas ICO-354749 and ICO-427008 were stable for the trait shoot borer infestation. The resistant lines had the highest total phenol, polyphenol oxidase and ascorbic acid content but total sugar content was lowest in these lines. The identified genotypes can be further utilized in breeding for resistance and the selection can also be done on the basis of these biochemical parameters. However, the SSR markers utilized were not informative enough and for marker assisted selection a greater number of primers should be added.