Estimation of genetic diversity for yield parameters in yellow pericarp sorghum germplasm lines [(Sorghum bicolor L.) Moench]

Abstract

Forty germplasm lines of yellow pericarp sorghum having different geographical origins were evaluated at ARS, Madhira during early rabi 2015-16 for genetic divergence using D2 analysis. The analysis of variance showed highly significant differences among the accessions for all the characters. Principal component analysis revealed that PC I, PC II and PC III explained 70.95, 11.50 and 7.46 % of total variance. The 40 germplasm lines were grouped into six clusters. Among them, Cluster 1 is the largest and had the maximum number (30) of genotypes followed by cluster 5 with 4 genotypes, cluster 2 with 3 genotypes and cluster 3, cluster 4 and cluster 6 with single genotype each. Percent contribution towards genetic divergence showed that plant height contributed the most (37.31%) followed by straw weight (26.92%) and grain yield per plant (22.69%).