Genetic diversity of brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) and its wild relatives

Genetic divergence analysis in brinjal genetic resources consisting of landraces, related cultivated species and wild relatives based on 22 morphological descriptors revealed distinct variation between cultivated and wild genotypes for the plant, fowering and fruiting characters. The multivariate D² analysis grouped the 30 accessions into eight clusters revealing a clear separation of wild relatives and cultivated types. The characters fruit yield per plant, leaf size and fruit number had high contribution towards the genetic divergence. SM- 27 (cluster V), SM- 25 (cluster III) and SM-23, SM-24,SM-20, SM-18, SM-10 and SM- 8 (cluster I) were the promising accessions identifed based on superior performance for three yield attributes viz., fruit weight, number of fruits per plant and fruit yield per plant. The accessions SM- 25, SM- 27, SM- 28 (Solanum incanum) and SM-30 (Solanum insanum) of highly divergent clusters III, V and VIII respectively were identifed as potential parents for future introgression breeding.