Genetic diversity study in chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) using multivariate approaches

An experiment was conducted to analyze the genetic diversity among 58 genotypes with 7 quantitative and 5 qualitative characters in chilli and two multivariate techniques; principal component analysis and cluster analysis. Based on D2 cluster analysis, the 58 genotypes were grouped into three distinct clusters. The highest inter cluster distance was observed between clusters I and III. The maximum contribution towards genetic divergence was shown by green fruit yield per plant (0.59) and primary branches per plant. Principal component analysis indicates that the first five principal components explain 74.90 per cent of the total variation. PC1 which accounted for the highest variation was mostly related to days to initiation of flowering and days to first picking as most of the important yield attributing and quality traits were present in PC1, PC2 and PC5. This study generally indicated that there was a significant genetic diversity among the test genotypes