Özet:

Turkey is one of the most important countries in the world for plant genetic resources and genetic diversity. Genetic resources are characterized by morphological and agronomical traits. There is a need to collect, characterize and evaluate remnants of local populations before they disappear. Morphological characterization is the first stage of the identification and classification of genetic resources. In this study, the aim was to determine the similarities and differences in the morphological variations of the eggplant populations collected from different eco-geographical regions of Turkey. Seventy five populations of eggplant were characterized using standard morphological descriptors specified by the IBPGR. The phenotypic diversity in their fruit characters was also assessed. Cluster and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was performed to determine the relationships among these accessions and to obtain information on the fruit characteristics for the definition of groups. The principal component analysis showed that the first four principal component axes explained 71.38% of the total multivariate variation. The results demonstrated many differences in fruit traits in the detailed eggplant populations. Clustered into nine groups, a dendrogram was prepared to evaluate the morphological differences among the populations. It revealed a high degree of variation. The results provided information on the diversity, and this identified eggplant genetic resources to be evaluated for the development of new candidate varieties in future breeding activities.

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