Multivariate Genetic Divergence Studies in Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

The present experiment was conducted during July-December, 2017 in RBD with two replication to study genetic diversity for nine quantitative traits in brinjal at APHC College farm, APHC, Kalavai using Mahalanobis D2 statistics method. The 35 genotypes were grouped into nineteen clusters, indicating the presence of diversity for different traits. The cluster I had the highest number containing six genotypes followed by cluster II and III containing four genotypes each while the clusters IV,V,VI,XVII and XIX consisted two genotypes each. However, the cluster VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV, XVI and XVIII were solitary. There is no relationship between geographical distribution and genetic distance. The maximum intra-cluster distance was recorded within cluster III (604.33) and the maximum inter-cluster distance between cluster IX and XIII (6070.31), indicating the existence of wide genetic variability and the genotypes in these clusters could be utilized as parents in hybridization programme to develop high heterotic hybrids and to identify trangressive segregants in F2 generation. Among the characters studied total fruit yield per plant, fruit length, days to first flower, number of branches per plant showed maximum contribution towards the diversity. The genetic divergent offered by these characters will offer scope for improving yield through rational selection.