PHENOTYPIC DIVERGENCE AMONG GRAPEVINE ACCESSIONS OF THE GERMPLASM COLLECTION AT IAC

Germplasm bank characterization as well as adequate statistical methods allows the identification of divergent parents. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the genetic divergence among 56 accessions of grapevine of the Germplasm Collection at Instituto Agronomico - IAC, characterized by eight quantitative traits. Multivariate analyses were used to quantify the divergence among the accessions. Euclidian distance, principal components and Tocher?s clustering method were applied. The Tocher?s method applied to the matrix of Euclidian distance with scores of principal components discriminated seven groups, with the first two comprised 69.64% and 17.86% respectively of total access. About 77,27% of the total variation was explained by the first two main components and 86,94% was explained by the three first main components obtained with eight components analysis. Thus, the multivariate analysis to study genetic diversity applied to the quantitative characters (Tocher?s clustering method and principal components) agreed among themselves, being efficient for analysis of the genetic diversity of germplasm of grapevine at IAC, which can be used for guidance in future crosses for breeding of this species. However, additional characteristics related to productivity, cycle and quality of most will be realized and added to these works of diversity.