|
PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
Genetic divergence among 50 eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) genotypes was estimated using Mahalanobis D2 Statistics. The 50 genotypes were grouped into eight distinct clusters. Among the different clusters, cluster II, V and VIII consisted maximum number of genotypes(9) followed by cluster cluster IV (7) and in cluster I, III, VI and VII each were having 4 genotypes. The intra cluster distance was maximum in cluster VII (164.49) and minimum in cluster V, VI and VIII (0.00). However, maximum inter cluster distance was recorded between cluster VII and VIII (536.13) indicated wide diversity between these two clusters, while lowest (59.63) was observed between cluster IV and V. The highest contribution in manifestation of genetic divergence was exhibited by ascorbic acid content (18.53 %), number of marketable fruits per plant (17.88 %), plant height (14.12 %), total soluble solids (12.65 %) and number of branches per plant (11.27 %). Cluster VIII had highest mean values for plant height, number of branches per plant, fruit breadth and ascorbic acid content. Cluster I showed higher mean values for earliest flowering and harvesting, total harvest duration, fruit yield per plant. Cluster V had highest mean values for number of marketable fruits per plant and total soluble solids whereas, cluster IV had maximum fruit length and cluster VII had maximum fruit weight. Considering the genetic divergence, clustering pattern and mean performance of genotypes for fruit yield and contributing characters 13 genotypes comprising UHF BRL-3, IC-074224-1, DB-144, DB-181, PBHL-4, Punjab Barsati, PBH-3, UHF BRL-2, DB-143, DBL-139, DB-110, DB-30 and DB-109 may be considered as elite genotypes and hybridization involving these genotypes are likely to give desirable segregants for yield and its components characters.