Study of Variation of Yield and Morphological Traits of Some Local Varieties of Iran’s Eggplant (Solanum melongena L.)

Eggplant is a crop that has been cultivated for a long time in different areas of Iran. Nevertheless, no sufficient studies have been done on variation of morphological traits and yield of this crop in Iran, and it has not been well-attended in breeding programs. Therefore, to study genetic diversity in collected local varieties, the experiment was conducted in a Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications at the Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran. There were significant differences (p<0.01) among genotypes for all traits except for fruit density and leaf dry matter. Fruit yield varied from 2410 to 4023 g plant-1 between the varieties. Plant width, leaf dry matter, number of short style flowers, number of fruits per plant, plant growth habit and leaf blade lobing had significantly positive correlations with fruit yields per plant. Cluster analysis grouped the varieties into four clusters. Fruit number and yield per plant (as the most important traits) had the higher values in third group. Factor analysis recognized five factors, which explained 83.11 percent of total variation. In the first factor, the most variation was explained by fruit number and yield per plant which generally named fruit component. In conclusion, the results of this study indicated that there was a broad genetic diversity among local varieties of Iran’s eggplant which makes it possible to use valuable varieties by desirable traits such as high yield and sweat flavor of fruit in breeding program aimed at improving traits.