Agronomic and Morphological Characterization of Kirsehir Local Green Long Pepper (Capsicum annuum L. var. longum) Populations

Abstract

In this study conducted in 2014 and 2015, genotypes were collected from the center and villages of Kirsehir province. Overall, 99 green long pepper genotypes within 313 pepper genotypes were characterized from the emerging of seedling to the end of the vegetation period, in terms of 48 agronomic and morphological characteristics based on IPGRI's description list for pepper and the UPOV criteria. The minimum, maximum, mean values and frequency percentages of the studied characters were determined. In order to determine the relationship between populations, cluster and principal component analysis were applied. As a result of the principal component analysis, total 17 main component axes were obtained and these axes represented 75.82% of the total variance. Genotypes were categorized into 15 groups in dendrogram according to morphological and agronomic characteristics. As a result of cluster analysis; S1, S2, S62, S3, S9, S67 and TR69737 coded genotypes were determined to be the most distant genotypes in terms of agronomic and morphological degree of relation. Up to now, with no similar study has been done before, the genetic variation in pepper populations determined by the identification of green long pepper genotypes of Kirsehir province will provide significant advantages in future pepper breeding studies.