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

Abstract

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.