Genetic diversity in brinjal (Solanum melongena L.)

Twenty one genotypes of brinjal were studied for genetic diversity. The genotypes were grouped into six clusters irrespective of geographic divergence, indicating no parallelism between geographic and genetic diversity. Cluster I was very large comprising of 15 genotypes, while cluster III to VI were solitary clusters. The maximum inter cluster distance was obtained between clusters II and V followed by those between clusters IV and V as well as Ill and V which may serve as potential genotypes for hybridization programme. Fruit length, fruit girth, number of branches per plant and plant height played in important role in divergence between the populations.