Genetic diversity analysis of Phyllanthus acidus Skeels of north-east India: Insights from multivariate analysis

Phyllanthus is the largest genera of Phyllanthaceae mostly distributed in tropical and subtropical region of southeast Asia. Phyllanthus acidus (star gooseberry) is one important species of Phyllanthus predominantly found in north-eastern region of India having medicinal significance. The present investigation was focused to assess the genetic variability of 20 accessions of Phyllanthus acidus and to identify the elite types based on various physico-biochemical attributes. The findings underscored a remarkable range of diversity among the accessions. Correlation coefficients unveiled meaningful positive and negative correlations among the traits under scrutiny. Notably, these correlations predominantly manifested fruit quality attributes. Principal component and cluster analysis performed based on 37 physico-biochemical characteristics. The PCA revealed significant portion of the total variability, explaining 86.66% of cumulative variance contribution rate across the initial 5 PCs extracted. The PC was highly contributed by positive loading with fruit characters viz. fruit weight, fruit volume, pulp weight, leaf length, leaf area, leaf perimeter, ascorbic acid, total sugar, total flavonoid and TSS of the fruit. However, negative correlation was observed with duration of flowering, moisture, acidity and seed weight. The accessions were clustered into 3 major clusters using wards method employing Euclidian distance. The cluster I included 6 accessions, the second illustrated 9 accessions and third cluster reflected 5 accessions. The biplot revealed 7 distinct accessions viz. PAS-14, PAS-9, PAS-6, PAS-1, PAS-20, PAS-3, PAS-18 with maximum variability and desired characteristics which can be considered as elite types and potential parent for quality breeding initiatives.