Genetic divergence study on growth, yield and quality traits in pink brinjal (Solanum melongena L.) in the subtropical plains of Jammu, India

In 2022, field investigation was conducted to examine the genetic diversity among 30 pink brinjal (eggplant, Solanum melongena L.) genotypes originating from India. Mahalanobis D2 analysis was performed to analyze the data for eighteen growth, yield and quality characters. Among the traits examined, the total fruit yield per plant made the most significant contribution towards diversity. Thirty genotypes were meaningfully grouped into eight clusters. Cluster I, the largest, had eight genotypes, followed by Cluster II and Cluster IV. There was no direct correlation observed between the geographical distribution and genetic divergence. Among all clusters formed, Cluster VII exhibited maximum intra-cluster distance followed by Cluster VI. Observing the inter-cluster distances, the maximum divergence was noted between Cluster III and Cluster IV suggesting that genotypes within these clusters could serve as valuable parents for hybridization programmes aimed at producing highly heterotic hybrids and identifying transgressive segregants in the F2 generation.