Assessment of genetic relationship among Solanum surattense Burm.f. population in India

The research was conducted to study the genetic association between nineteen quantitative traits in fifty-four yellow- berried nightshade (Solanum surattense Burm. f.) accessions. The experiment material was evaluated at the Department of Medicinal and Aromatic Crops, HC & RI, TNAU, Coimbatore during rabi 2021–22. NMPB recommended a package of practices was followed to raise the healthy crop. Maximum variation was observed for number of flower clusters per plant, leaf width, petiole length, days to first flowering, number of berries, fresh single berry weight, fresh berry yield per plant and dry berry yield per plant. Correlation studies disclosed that dry berry yield per plant was highly significant and positively related with the number of berries, fresh berry weight, dry single berry weight, fresh single berry weight, berry diameter and plant spread (N-S). Selection based on these parameters would ultimately improve berry yield in kantakari. Nine ideal accessions viz., Ss-13, Ss44, Ss-1, Ss-34, Ss-12, Ss-17, Ss-7, Ss-57, and Ss-33 were identified for the traits such as early maturity, number of branches per plant, less number of thorns, flower cluster per branch, number of berries, fresh and dry berry yield per plant in this study. Consequently, these accessions can be employed as source lines in breeding programmes to produce desired segregates.