Genetic divergence in 98 accessions of Solanum melongena L. and its allied species S. aethiopicum L. and S. macrocarpon L. for 16 morpho-agronomic and fruit traits revealed the existence of considerable diversity. Such collections were grown in the field during the 5 year EU-EGGNET project for characterization and seed multiplication. Diversity has been observed between the different species as well as within the species. Frequency distributions for fruit pedicel length, bitter flavour, browning, peelability, and cooking test were determined. Besides the qualitative descriptors, 11 quantitative descriptors were described. The relationships among them were analysed by Principal Component Analysis in order to summarize the data and reduce the number of variables for clustering. Plant height, flowering time, flower/inflorescence, fruit length and fruit acidity contributed mostly towards total divergence. Cluster analysis conducted separately for each species, in relation to the genetic status of accession (sub-species, botanical or variety group, cultivar and population), grouped the accessions into three distinct and significant clusters. No relationship was found between genetic divergence and genetic status of sample. In addition, relevant fruit discrete descriptors were used as a classification variable to ascertain whether some of them correspond to certain morphoagronomic properties. The genotypes included in the diverse clusters could be used as promising parents for hybridisation in order to obtain a high heterotic response and thus contribute to eggplant breeding.

Eight grass pea lines grown in three different seasons were evaluated for the stability of seed yield, 100 seeds weight, flowering time, plant height, and biomass. Significant differences existed among years, lines, and lines years interaction for all traits except for 100 seeds weight. Two methods of multivariate analysis cluster and principal components were utilized to determine: firstly, whether a pattern existed among lines in their response across years and secondly to examine the relationships among them. In both analyses, each line was presented as a vector whose elements were given by the performance of lines in each year. The analyses used arranged the lines into groups that were differentiable in terms of performances and stability. Our results provide useful information to aid the choice of grass pea lines in the Mediterranean marginal areas.

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In order to describe the phenotypic diversity in a core collection of grasspea, 47 progenies of single plants (pure lines) selected from 25 accessions were evaluated. Sixteen morpho-agronomic characters including seed 3-(b-N-oxalyl)-L-2,3 diaminopropionic acid (b-ODAP) content were studied. Univariate and multivariate analyses (principal component analysis and cluster analysis) were performed to estimate differences between progenies. Some high-yielding lines could be used directly for cultivation as new varieties and/or as parental lines in crossing programmes. Seed b-ODAP concentration varied from 0.24% to 0.64%. However, a medium to high seed b-ODAP level was recorded for most of the lines, and no significant correlation was observed between this and other morphological traits.