GENETIC DIVERSITY AMONG BITTER MELON GENOTYPES ASSESSED THROUGH MORPHO-AGRONOMIC VARIABLES

ABSTRACT Bitter melon (Momordica charantia L.) is a plant species recommended by the Brazilian Health Regulatory Agency (Anvisa) as hypoglycemiant. The characterization of plants an essential step in any breeding program. objective present work was to organize and characterize bitter germplasm collection, based on morpho-agronomic characters, assess its genetic diversity identify genotypes agronomic interest. Eighty-eight were characterized for 38 descriptors. Redundant descriptors identified through Principal Component Analysis (PCA); after their exclusions, new PCA carried out verify dispersion among genotypes. Groups defined using kmeans clustering method. groups studied phenotype pattern radar chart. Populational estimated Shannon Pielou indexes. Intra group analysis similarity (anosim). relative importance variables also estimated. Seventeen redundant. grouped into 5 groups. G1 G5 antagonist regarding fruit seed productions fruit, leaf, sizes. A trend decrease sizes found from G5. high. high small genotypes, low medium-sized variable number male flowers (NMFL) that presented greatest contribution estimation diversity. UFRRJ MSC072, 042, 028, 087 stood with highest fruits produced.