GENETIC DIVERSITY AND IMPORTANCE OF MORPHO-AGRONOMIC TRAITS IN A SEGREGATING F₂ POPULATION OF ORNAMENTAL PEPPER

Brazil has a broad diversity of species belonging to the genus Capsicum, which can be used in breeding programs for ornamental purposes. The objective of this study was to evaluate genetic diversity in an F₂ population of ornamental pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) and to determine the importance of the evaluated traits. The experiment was conducted in a greenhouse in the Laboratory of Plant Biotechnology, at Universidade Federal da Paraíba (UFPB). Ninety-nine plants of an F2 generation of ornamental peppers were used to evaluate the following morpho-agronomic traits: plantlet height, hypocotyl diameter, cotyledonary leaf length, cotyledonary leaf width, plant height, crown width, height at the first bifurcation, stem diameter, leaf width, leaf with petiole length, chlorophyll A, and chlorophyll B. The experimental design was completely randomized. Data were subjected to analysis of variance, with subsequent clustering of means for the Scott-Knott test (p<0.01). Tocher’s method was used based on Mahalanobis distance to cluster the genotypes and the relative importance was evaluated by Singh (1981)’s method. There were significant differences at 1% for the F test for all evaluated traits, except hypocotyl diameter. Tocher’s clustering allowed for the separation of genotypes into three groups, indicating the existence of genetic variability among them. Chlorophyll A (21.76%), hypocotyl diameter (14.95%), and stem diameter (14.21%) were the variables that most contributed to genetic divergence. Chlorophyll B contributed only with 0.057%, so it should be discarded in future studies. The phenotypic variability among the 99 genotypes can be used in the breeding program with selection within the family.