Genetic divergence for yield and quality traits in bathua (Chenopodium album L.)

Abstract

An investigation was carried out with the twenty four genotypes of bathua to study the nature and magnitude of genetic divergence using Mahalanobis D2 analysis. Analysis of variance showed significant difference among the genotypes for all the characters studied. The twenty four genotypes were grouped into four clusters depending on similarities of their D2 values. The distribution pattern indicated that the maximum number of genotypes (18) was included in cluster (I) followed by cluster II (4) and the minimum number was in cluster III and cluster IV (1). The inter cluster distance in most of the cases was higher than the intra cluster distance, which indicated wider genetic diversity among the accessions of different groups. The highest inter cluster distance was observed between cluster II and IV, followed by the distance between cluster III and IV showing wide diversity among the groups. The lowest inter-cluster distance was observed between cluster I and III suggesting a close relationship among the genotypes of these two clusters. The highest intra cluster distance was observed for the cluster II and the lowest for the cluster III and IV. This suggested presence of considerable diversity among the groups of the genotypes.