Genetic divergences among accesses of watermelon collected in Rio Grande do Norte State, Brazil

Abstract

The objective this work was to evaluate genetic divergences among nine watermelon accesses collected in four municipalities in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, and the cultivar ‘Crimson Sweet’. The experiment was carried out in Mossoró municipality using a completely randomized block design, with thirty treatments and three replicates. Fourteen parameters related with yield, fruit quality and seed were measured. The technique of main components and the Mahalanobis distance were used, together with Tocher and UPGMA methods, to study the genetic divergences. The contribution of each variable was estimated by the coefficient weights of the main components and by Singh’s methodology. Two groups were formed by Tocher’s criterion and by the UPGMA method. The first one formed by the cultivar ‘Crimson Sweet’ and the second by the other accesses. The average fruit weight was the characteristic that gave the best contribution for groups discrimination. There was low variability among the watermelon accesses from Mossoró region.