Abstract
Estimates of variance components and gene effects for yield as well as eight fruit characters (mean fruit weight, locule number, flesh thickness, flesh content, fruit firmness, total soluble solids, titratable acidity, and fruit shape index) from a 13 × 13 diallel study revealed that both additive and dominant gene actions were important in the inheritance of all the traits except mean fruit weight, where additive gene action was predominant. Narrow sense heritability was high for all characters except yield per plant and flesh content. Graphical analysis revealed that the large-fruited parent Miliana possessed a maximum number of recessive genes for average fruit weight while the small-fruited parent No. 6-1286 possessed a maximum number of recessive genes for total soluble solids. Slava-VF possessed a maximum number of recessive genes for both mean fruit weight and total soluble solids.
