Genetic Diversity in Brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

Genetic divergence among 35 genotypes of brinjal for 19 characters was evaluated in a breeding programme aimed at improving yield potential by using Mahalanobis D2 statistics. The genotypes were grouped into ten clusters suggesting considerable amount of genetic diversity in the material. The cluster V had maximum 10 genotypes followed by II and IV having 6 and 4 genotypes, respectively. These clusters having maximum number of genotypes, reflecting narrow genetic diversity. The intra-cluster D2 value ranged from 21.71 to 52.61 while, inter-cluster D2 value ranged from 39.09 to 103.59. The maximum intra cluster distance was exhibited by cluster II followed by cluster V and cluster X. The maximum inter-cluster D2 value was observed between VIII and IX. Maximum contribution towards the total divergence was exhibited by fruit yield per plant (30.57%) followed by average fruit weight (29.90%) and ascorbic acid content (15.51%). Noteworthy is that cluster VIII and X reflected high cluster means for fruit yield per plant, average fruit weight, number of fruits per plant and these clusters can be successfully utilized in hybridization programmes to get desirable transgressive segregants.