Genetic divergence between half-sibling progenies of kale using different multivariate approaches

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to evaluate the genetic dissimilarity between half-sibling progenies of kale in order to determine the most divergent progenies and, also, to select potential parents. Thirty-six kale genotypes were evaluated, being thirty-three half-sibling progenies and three commercial cultivars, in a randomized block design with four replicates and six plants per plot. Twenty-eight traits were evaluated in each plant per plot, thirteen quantitative and fifteen qualitative traits. Genetic divergence was studied using MANOVA and canonical variables for quantitative observations. In addition, dendrograms were made for quantitative, qualitative and joint analyses by UPGMA method, using Mahalanobis distance. Genetic divergence was observed between genotypes. Commercial cultivars were more divergent than half-sibling progenies. Among half-sibling progenies, the most divergent ones were P1, P21, P23, P25 and P30. We concluded that half-sibling progenies P1, P23 and P30 can be used as potential parents to compose the recombinant population.