Author(s):

VA Sathiyamurthy, S Moondrampirai, T Arumugam and V Thiruvengadam

Abstract: An investigation was carried out with one hundred and fifty three genotypes of chilli during June, 2016 to January 2017 to study the genetic divergence among them. Observations on yield and yield attributing traits were recorded in five randomly selected plants per genotype for each replication and the mean values were used for statistical analysis. Observations on fruit and seed characters were recorded in ten fruits selected at random from the tagged plants and the mean was worked out. Mahalanobis D² analysis was used for estimating the genetic divergence. The D² analysis showed that one fifty three genotypes were grouped into 16 clusters. The inter cluster divergence was found to be the highest between clusters VIII and X and the closest clusters were IV and VII. The inter mating of individuals from cluster VIII and X can express high heterotic vigour and produce desirable segregants in hybridization programme. The intra cluster generalized distance ranged from 7.40 in cluster II and 36.18 in cluster X. The highest cluster divergence was recorded between cluster VIII and cluster X (51.56). The closest cluster was cluster IV and cluster VII (11.78). The highest contribution to genetic divergence was by ripe fruit yield per plant followed by dry fruit yield per plant and dry fruit weight. The ranges of mean values among the clusters were very high for plant spread, yield of ripe fruits per plant and days to first harvest. Moderate ranges were observed for days to 50 per cent flowering, number of seeds per fruit, number of ripe fruits per plant, dry fruits yield per plant and plant height.

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