This study aimed to evaluate the genetic divergence among peach populations and quantify the relative contribution of thirteen diversity characteristics using multivariate procedures. It was analyzed 179 individuals from 15 populations, number of individuals ranging from 3 to 64 plants. The characteristics evaluated were: plant (node density per meter mixed branches, density of vegetative buds sprouted per meter of branch, plant height and trunk diameter), fruit (length, diameter, firmness, soluble solids, titratable acidity, vitamin C, percentage of coverage area with red pigment of the epidermis, coordinated 'b' obtained from epidermis and hue angle of the epidermis). The genetic diversity of populations was evaluated by cluster Tocher and nearest neighbor using the Mahalanobis distance as the dissimilarity measure. It was also obtained the coefficient of relatedness among populations and the relative contribution of the characters in the total variability. The realization of grouping by the Tocher method and by the Nearest Neighbor using as dissimilarity measure the Mahalanobis distances promoted the formation of four groups. Among populations studied, it was observed certain relatedness degree between most possible combinations with coefficients of small magnitude (less than 0.2). The characteristics that contributed most to the discrimination of genotypes were the percentage of red in the epidermis, titratable acidity and plant height. The smaller contributions to diversity of characters were obtained by BRIX, number of nodes / linear meter of branch and vitamin C
Prunus persica; genetic diversity; parentage coefficient; multivariate analysis
