Genetic divergence in brinjal (Solanummelongena L.)

Genetic divergence among 50 genotypes of brinjal for 16 characters was estimated using Mahalanobis D² statistic. The genotypes were grouped into eight clusters on the basis of relative magnitude of D² values. Among the eight clusters, cluster IV was the largest, comprising of 17 genotypes. The maximum and minimum intracluster distances were found in cluster VI and cluster I, respectively. The inter cluster D² values was maximum between the cluster VI and VII while the minimum inter cluster distance was observed between cluster I and II. The mean value for most of the traits was highest in cluster VII. The characters like average fruit weight, days to last harvest and bacterial wilt incidence contributed maximum to genetic divergence and hence played a major role in improvement of brinjal.