Assessment of genetic diversity in different Chilli (Capsicum annuum L.) genotypes

Genetic divergence among 53 genotypes of chilli was assessed using Mahalanobis D2 statistic for 20 characters at College of Horticulture, Venkataramannagudem, Dr. Y.S.R Horticultural University, Andhra Pradesh. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the genotypes for all the characters studied indicating considerable diversity in the material. (Based on Mahalanobis D2 statistic) The fifty three genotypes were grouped into 9 clusters. The maximum contribution towards genetic divergence was by ascorbic acid content (24.67 %) followed by colour value (16.11 %), fruit weight (14.59 %), seed weight (9.80 %) and capsaicin content (8.56 %).The mutual relationships between the clusters revealed that inter-cluster distance values were greater than intra-cluster values. Among the clusters, cluster I was the largest group comprising of thirtyeight genotypes, followed by cluster III with eight genotypes, whereas, the cluster II, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII and IX were monotypic or solitary.The highest inter cluster distance was observed between clusters VIII andIX (19458.80) whereas, the lowest was observed between clusters I and IV (478.13). Cluster III (445.93) has exhibited highest intra cluster distance and the lowest was observed in clusters II, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII and IX (0.00) D2 cluster analysis revealed wide genetic distance (inter cluster) between the genotypes of cluster VIII (California Wonder) and IX (Bhut Jolokia) and the crossing between genotypes of these two clusters can be exploited for the development of heterotic hybrids in future breeding programmes.