Genetic diversity and characterization of African eggplant germplasm collection

• DOI: 10.5897/ajps.9000128
• Publication Date: 2010-07-31
• Authors: Francesco Sunseri; G. Battista Polig...; Vittorio Alba; Concetta Lotti; V. Bisignano; Giuseppe Mennella; A. Drsquo; Aless; ro ro; Monica Bacchi; Paolo Riccardi; Maria Carola Fiore; Luigi M. Ricciardi
• Keywords: Ecotype; Germ plasm; Dendrogram; UPGMA

Genetic diversity among 70 “scarlet eggplant” (Solanum aethiopicum L.) entries from different geographical origins was assessed. Entries were firstly evaluated for the main morphologic traits and chlorogenic acid content. Standard statistics multivariate analyses utilized to assess phenotypic grouping entries. In addition, amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) simple sequence repeat (SSR) used evaluate genetic relationships entries. Differences between are highly significant all descriptors. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that first three components accounted 74% of total variance. Morphologic associated with two components, while third one moderately correlated The observed similarity allowed identifying only groupings. clusters obtained did not show any geographic and/or botanical groups. Matrices AFLP SSR data in order obtain a dendrogram. A large cluster included several South America limited rate variation observed. On contrary, higher amount Africa, which also present accessions collected Italy. These appeared always morphologically genetically distinguishable others. results provided additional information conservation, improvement legal protection ecotype ‘melanzana rossa di Rotonda’, cultivated Italy.

Key words: Solanum aethiopicum L., scarlet eggplant, amplified polymorphism, simple repeat, analyses, Rotonda’.