English (United Kingdom)

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/featured_content/oa?rat=en

https://curated-unify.zendy.io/wp-json/zendy-region/v1/highlighted_journal/

Global: Zendy Plus annual

Presents the access of premium content as premium feature

Premium Content

Presents the keyphrase highlighting as premium feature

Keyphrase Highlighting

Presents the summarisation as premium feature

Summarisation

Insights

Presents the pdf analysis as premium feature

PDF Analysis

Presents the zaia usage as premium feature

ZAIA

Global: Zendy Tools annual

Global: Zendy Free Plan

Global: Zendy Tools monthly

Global: Zendy Plus monthly

Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.), belonging to the family Lythraceae, is one of the oldest and beloved fruit crops cultivated widely in several tropical and subtropical countries. It is an excellent fruit crop for valorising marginal lands and saline waters without special care and is considered to be the native of region circumventing Iran and Northern India [1]. Pomegranate fruits are consumed both as fresh as well as processed in the form of juice, squash, wine and as an acidulant product commonly known as anardana [2]. India is one of the leading producers of pomegranate in the world with a total production of 20.90 Lakh tones from an area of 2442 thousand hectares and a productivity of 11.70 MT/ha sharing 1.5% of total fruit production of the country [3]. It is commercially cultivated in Maharashtra, which is the leading state in India in terms of area and production, Karnataka, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan [3]. India is considered to be the home of many wild type pomegranates locally known as Daru types which are deciduous, hardy, seedling origin trees characterized by small and highly acidic fruits with thick rinds and smaller arils, found gregariously growing in gravel and boulder deposits of dry ravines in the foothills of Himalayas [4-6]. Several introductions have been made to India through National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resource which are being maintained, characterized and conserved in the field gene banks at NBPGR Regional Stations and other research institutes like National Research Centre, pomegranate and State Agriculture Universities. However, very few of these introductions could be utilized in the pomegranate improvement programme while many failed to establish owing to the warm climatic conditions prevailing in India. The Indian varieties, mostly originating from active breeding programs, are characterized by low-acid, sweet flavour, small to medium sized fruit with soft seed, more juice and thin rind. Although, the country has been bestowed with rich genetic diversity of pomegranate and the varieties obtained through breeding programmes add to this richness, their full potential is yet to be explored by pomegranate researchers, growers and industrialists. Since, both fresh market and processing industries drive the pomegranate consumption, a comprehensive characterization of germplasm for different fruit traits contributing to its fresh market and processing attributes will be paramount to satisfy the quality demands of different markets [7]. In the characterization of a germplasm, it is important to evaluate the traits which show variation in the population in order to identify the traits of interest and variations therein. This becomes complex while dealing with large number of traits at a time. In general, the yield attributing traits as well as traits with bearing on the quality of produce exhibit polygenic or complex inheritance and are highly influenced by the environmental conditions. Under such circumstances, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is one of the most efficient approaches to find out the variations being explained by different traits thus reducing the variables under study. Pomegranate germplasm have been characterized in several countries for different Abstract Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.), belonging to the family Lythraceae, is one of the oldest and beloved fruit crops cultivated widely in several tropical and subtropical countries. In the recent past pomegranate cultivation is gaining immense popularity in India owing to its dietary and nutraceutical benefits. The present study was conducted with an objective of determining diversity present in the popular pomegranate genotypes of India for different morphological and biochemical traits and to detect the association between the genotypes using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis (CA). Results suggest presence of considerable phenotypic and genetic diversity in the studied pomegranate genotypes. Fruit and aril traits like fruit weight, dry weight of 100 arils, fruit volume, fruit length, peel weight, aril weight and fruit diameter were found to be the most discriminating traits of the Indian pomegranate germplasm under study.

Diversity in Pomegranate (Punica granatum L.) Genotypes of India as Revealed by Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis