Genetic variability in domesticated Capsicum spp as assessed by morphological and agronomic data in mixed statistical analysis

Abstract

Capsicum species are very important in Brazil because of economic, cultural and biological factors, and the country is considered to be a diversity center for this genus. Collection and maintenance of the genetic diversity in Capsicum are important to avoid genetic erosion. Besides the identification of species, the characterization and evaluation of accessions maintained in gene banks are of fundamental importance. For this purpose, multivariate methods have become an important tool in the classification of conserved genotypes. The objectives of this study were: i) to identify and characterize accessions of the Capsicum spp collection and draw conclusions about the potential use of certain accessions in different production sectors; ii) to estimate the genetic divergence among accessions using the Ward-MLM procedure, and iii) to evaluate the