GENETIC DIVERGENCE OF BREAD WHEAT GENOTYPES BASED ON CLUSTER AND PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS FOR BREEDING STRATEGIES

Abstract

The genetic divergence study was conducted to estimate the nature and magnitude of diversity in Lr19+ and Lr19-lines of bread wheat. The divergence analysis including Tocher's, canonical (vector) and Principal component analysis(PCA) for yield and its nine contributing characters were studied. The twenty two wheat genotypes were grouped into four clusters by both Tocher's method of divergence study. The result of PCA revealed that all the 4 principal components (PC1, PC2, PC3 and PC 4) contributed 93.35% of the total variability. The first PC assigned 60% and the second PC assigned 16% and of total variation between traits. The first PC was more related to days to heading, plant height, tillers per lant, spikelets per spike, grain yield per spike and peduncle length. Therefore, selection based on first component is helpful for a good hybridization breeding program. The information obtained from this study can be used to plan crosses and maximized the use of genetic diversity and expression of heterosis from alien translocation.