Inter and Intra Genetic Diversity of Sweet Cherry (Prunus avium L.) in Jammu and Kashmir Ecological Zone

Abstract

Nine sweet cherry accessions were used for the analysis of morphological variability and genetic diversity by means of multivariate statistical analysis. Days from full bloom to harvest was significantly lowest (66.33 days) in accession-6. Significantly highest fruit set (37.10%) was found in accession-2. However, fruit length was highest in selection-1 (24.82 mm) which was statistically at par with accession-7 (24.77 mm). Fruit weight was maximum in selection-2 (8.13 g) which was found to statistically at par with accession-1 (8.08g) and accession-7 (8.08 g). Fruit firmness was statistically maximum in selection-7 (396 gmm-1). Maximum stone length (11.40mm) was found in accession-8 while as minimum was observed in accession-2 (10.10 mm). Stone weight was observed to be maximum in accession-7 (0.48 g) while as minimum in accession-6 (0.35 g). Statistically highest and lowest TSS was observed in accession-7 and accession-6, respectively. Most acidic fruit were of accession-6 and accession-9 while as least acidic fruits were of accession-3. Significantly maximum yield was observed in accession-2 (8.31 kg).  The phenotypic variance was higher than genotypic variance for each observed trait. The phenotypic coefficient of variation and genotypic coefficient of variation was highest for TSS: acid ratio (16.21 & 15.94%) followed by fruit set (15.08 & 15.07%) and lowest for stone length (4.32 & 4.29%). The estimates of heritability (broad sense) in combination with genetic advance (as percent of mean) were high for fruit set (0.99 & 31.05%), TSS: Acid ratio (0.96 & 32.29%), fruit yield (0.97 & 28.56%), firmness (0.99 & 27.51) and fruit weight (0.99 & 21.02%). The accessions under study were grouped into 4 clusters as per Mahalanobis D2 analysis with maximum number of accessions in cluster I (5) followed by cluster IV (2) and rest two 2 clusters were monogenotypic.  The maximum intra cluster distance was observed in cluster IV (2995.47) followed by cluster I (1900.65) where as the inter cluster distance was maximum between cluster II and IV (12307.92) followed by cluster I and IV (10387.72).