Peanut ( Arachis hypogaea L.) cultivars classification based on quantitative traits to establish core collections of the genebank of Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias, Venezuela

The Venezuelan (CENIAP) germplasm collection of groundnut comprises 560 accessions from different countries. In order to enhance the use of these germplasm, different groups of accessions were generated applying multivariate methods. The classification of 546 accessions were based on 16 quantitative traits: days to emergence, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, length, width and width/length ratio of leaflet, width and length of pod, weight of 100 pods, number of seeds per 100 pods, weight of 100 seeds, length and width of seeds, seed width/length ratio, kernel percent and yield per plant. Principal component analysis (PCA) was performed on the basis of correlation matrix of the 16 quantitative variables. Groups of accessions were determined through ascendant-hierarchical classification following the Euclidean distance matrix aggregation criterion, based on second-order moments. The first three components in the PCA accounted for 64% of the variability. The traits that better explained the groups were: 100 weight number of seeds per 100 pods, length and wide of leaf, length and wide of pods, % of kernel, and yield per plot. Other traits with good correlation with principal components were: days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, length and wide of seeds. Hierarchical classification resulted in seven clusters, which might represent cores of variability in the groundnut collection. La colección de cultivares de maní del Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (CENIAP) está constituida por 560 accesiones o introducciones procedentes de diferentes países de cinco continentes. Para facilitar la utilización de este germoplasma se pretende identificar grupos de variabilidad en la colección aplicando técnicas de análisis multivariado. En el presente trabajo fueron clasificados 546 accesiones de acuerdo a 16 variables cuantitativas: días a emergencia, días a floración, días a cosecha, longitud, ancho y relación ancho/longitud del folíolo, longitud y ancho del fruto, peso de 100 frutos, número de semillas en 100 frutos, peso de 100 semillas, longitud y ancho de la semilla, relación ancho/longitud de la semilla, porcentaje de almendra y rendimiento por planta. Se realizó el análisis de componentes principales (CP) a partir de la matriz de correlación de las 16 variables cuantitativas. Para la determinación de los grupos de accesiones afines se usó el análisis de clasificación jerárquica ascendente, usando el criterio de la distancia euclideana entre in