Journal of Advances in Biology & Biotechnology

Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) improvement depends on the selection of genetically distinct parental lines and reliable confirmation of hybrid origin. This study assessed genetic associations among eight eggplant parental genotypes and evaluated simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers for confirming hybridity in 15 F₁ combinations. The experiment was conducted at the Central Research Station, Vegetable Division, Wakawali, and molecular analyses were performed at the Plant Biotechnology Centre, Dr B. S. Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli, during the Rabi seasons of 2022–2023 and 2023–2024. Three bacterial-wilt-susceptible lines and five bacterial-wilt-resistant testers were used in a line × tester crossing programme. Of the 20 SSR markers screened, 11 were polymorphic and produced 40 alleles across the parental genotypes. Allele numbers ranged from three to six per locus, with a mean of 3.64. Polymorphism information content values ranged from 0.41 to 0.81, with a mean of 0.63. Pairwise Jaccard similarity coefficients ranged from 0.00 to 0.47. Unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean analysis separated the eight parents into three major clusters. Marker emh21J12 distinguished female parents carrying an approximately 300 bp allele from male parents carrying an approximately 280 bp allele. The detection of both parental alleles in the F₁ combinations provided evidence consistent with hybrid origin. These findings support the use of informative SSR markers for parental characterisation and locus-specific hybridity confirmation in eggplant breeding.