Genetic divergence among Ramnad mundu chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) genotypes for yield and quality

Genetic diversity among forty-seven genotypes of Mundu chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) was assessed for fifteen yield and quality characters during kharif 2018. The analysis of variance disclosed that significant difference present for most of the parameters studied, which indicated the existence of wide diversity among all Mundu chilli genotypes. Mahalanobis D² statistic stated that the forty-seven genotypes were grouped into six clusters. The highest contribution for genetic divergence was dry fruit yield per plant (25.7%), Ascorbic acid (11.56%), 1000 seed weight (10.85%) and the number of seeds per fruit (10.5%). Among the clusters, the largest was cluster II containing 21 genotypes followed by cluster III (13 genotypes) and cluster I (10 genotypes) whereas, clusters IV, V and VI were grouped as solitary clusters (one genotype in each cluster). The highest inter-cluster distance was noted between clusters IV and VI (1588.27) whereas, the lowest was recorded between clusters II and V (192.44). Cluster III (144.94) has recorded the highest intra-cluster distance and the lowest was observed in clusters IV, V and VI (0.00). D² cluster analysis revealed wide genetic distance (inter-cluster) between the genotypes of cluster I (PKMCA-38), II (PKMCA-20, PKMCA-32, PKMCA-33) and V (PKMCA-08). Hence, genetic improvement by crossing among these groups can exploit heterotic hybrids.