| Abstrakt: |
The present investigation was carried out at the Plant Breeding Farm, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University, Annamalainagar during Samba. The experimental field was saline environment with EC of 2.5 ds/m and PH of 7.8. The study was carried out in an effort to assess the extent of genetic divergence, variability and character association in 35 genotypes for 11 character viz., days to first flowering, plant height at maturity, number of tillers per plant, number of panicles per plant, panicle length, number of grains per panicle, 1000 grain weight, grain length, grain breadth, grain L/B ratio and grain yield per plant. Genetic divergence was studied based on Mahalanobis D2 statistic and grouping of cluster was done following Tocher's method. The analysis of variance for genotypes revealed the presence of significant variability among the genotypes for all the 11 characters studied. Based on D2 analysis the genotypes were categorized into 10 clusters based on the genetic distance and mean of different characters. The clustering pattern indicated that there was no association between geographical distribution of genotypes and genetic divergence. The maximum intra cluster distance was observed in cluster VIII followed by cluster IV. The maximum inter cluster distance was observed between cluster VIII and X followed by cluster VIII and IX. The parents selected from these divergent clusters could produce superior progenies and hybrids. The characters namely grain yield per plant followed by grain length and grain breadth had contributed much towards genetic divergence. The parents from distantly related belonging to clusters X and VIII could be used for combining characters of yield and grain quality components to achieve desirable segregants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
