Evaluating the Genetic Diversity of Iranian Endemic Eggplant Accessions for Some Morphological Traits

Eggplant is a highly nutritious vegetable that is widely consumed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the genetic diversity between eggplant accessions from the National Plant Gene-Bank of Iran. In the first year, a preliminary evaluation was conducted using 168 accessions. Based on preliminary evaluation results, 40 accessions were selected for complementary evaluation in the second year. The evaluation was based on 23 quantitative and qualitative traits. The results of the preliminary evaluation showed statistically significant (P<0.01) differences between accessions for all traits. Fruit shape frequencies were rounded (35.89 percent), elongated (32.18 percent), oval (13.67 percent), Semi-elongated (13.15 percent), and mace-shaped (5.11 percent). In the complementary evaluation, there were significant differences between accessions for all traits. Qualitative traits such as flower color (1.56) and fruit shape (1.53) exhibited the highest genetic variation, while fruit color (0.5) showed the lowest. Cluster analysis analysis results revealed four groups for accessions and the highest (22.34) and least (0.12) genetic distances between 1 and 2 and between 7 and 21accessions, respectively. Factor analysis showed that the first three factors explained 68.06 percent of total variation in data. The first and second factors were related to yield and yield components, respectively. Also, fruit yield traits showed high heritability and there was significant genetic correlation between these traits. Therefore, high heritable and high-scoring traits in these factors should be considered when selecting progenies in segregating populations for improvement in terms of fruit yield and shape.