Morphological diversity assessment in seventy-eight accessions of eggplants (Solanum sp.)

Abstract

Eggplant is a popular vegetable/fruit consumed in Nigeria either in the fresh form or cooked. To study the genetic diversity; estimate the heritability and genetic advances of the fruit yield and to determine quantitative traits of this crop, a total of seventy-eight accessions of eggplants were evaluated in 2011/2012 at the vegetable research field of the National Horticultural Research Institute, Ibadan. Data on quantitative traits were subjected to Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Single Linkage Cluster Analysis (SLCA), Fastclus technique and Analysis of Variance. Phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variability (PCV and GCC), heritability and genetic advance of the yield components were estimated. The first four principal component axes accounted for 79.47% of total variability. PCA1 with largest variation (40.49%) was loaded with petiole length, fruit diameter, number of fruits and fruit yield/plant. The SLCA summarized relationship among the 78 accessions into three groups at 50% level of similarity while Fastclus technique separated them into sixteen clusters. Significant variation occurred among the eggplant accessions with respect to most of the traits studied. High estimates of broad-sense heritability (˃ 85%) suggested that the traits were highly heritable and under additive gene effect. Magnitude of PCV higher than GCV for some traits indicated that environment had great influence on these traits.

Keywords: Genetic diversity, quantitative traits, variation, heritability, genetic advance