Germplasm characterization of Indian avocados based on morphological and biochemical traits

Abstract Avocado is a delicious fruit crop having great economic importance. Understanding the extent of variability present in the existing germplasm is important to identify genotypes with specific traits and their utilization in crop improvement. The information on genetic variability with respect to morphological and biochemical traits in Indian avocados is limited and as it has hindered genetic improvement of the crop. In the current study, 83 avocado accessions from different regions of India were assessed for important 17 morphological and 8 biochemical traits. The results showed the existence of wide variability for traits such as fruit weight (75.88–934.12 g), pulp weight (48.08–736.19 g), seed weight (6.37–32.62 g), FRAP activity (27.65–119.81 mg AEAC/100 g), total carotenoids (0.96–7.17 mg/100 g), oil content (4.91–25.49%) and crude fibre (6.85–20.75%) in the studied accessions. The first three components of principal component analysis explained 54.79 per cent of total variance. Traits such as fruit weight, pulp weight, seed weight, moisture and oil content contributed more significantly towards total variance compared to other traits. The dendrogram constructed based on Euclidean distance wards minimum variance method divided 83 accessions into two major groups and nine sub clusters suggesting wide variability in the accessions with respect to studied traits. In this study, superior accessions for important traits such as fruit size (PA-102, PA-012), high pulp recovery (PA-036, PA-082,), thick peel (PA-084, PA-043, PA-011, PA-008), high carotenoids (PA-026, PA-096) and high oil content (PA-044, PA-043, PA-046, PA-045) were identified which have potential utility in further crop improvement programmes.