Different multivariate analysis for fruit traits in sweet pepper breeding

Abstract

Pepper is very popular vegetable crop in Southeast Europe and in Serbia as well. Wide genetic variability is essential in pepper breeding programs. The aim of this study was to evaluate variability for the most important fruit traits and differences between 28 sweet pepper genotypes from the working collection from the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops (Novi Sad, Serbia). The following traits were analyzed: fruit weight (g), fruit length (cm), fruit diameter (cm), fruit index, number of locules, number of apexes, pericarp thickness (mm), and total soluble solids (°Brix). Results confirmed great variability in evaluated pepper fruit traits. Genotypes were separated into individual groups based on fruit characteristics. According to our research, hierarchical cluster analysis represented differentiation among groups of genotypes more clearly than PCA, but not comparing to k-means. Hierarchical cluster analysis showed the similarity between genotypes, but k-means clustering did not. Genotypes from group 3 will be used in breeding for higher fruit weight and group 6 for thicker pericarp.