Genetic diversity studies in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Abstract

Thirty-seven elite germplasm lines being maintained at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Maruteru were evaluated for their genetic diversity with regard to grain yield, yield components and quality traits. The genotypes were classified into 18 clusters, based on Mahalanobis D2 statistics. Geographical and genetic diversity were observed to be unrelated, as genotypes from diverse geographical regions were placed in the same cluster, while, genotypes from the same centre were grouped into different clusters. Results on inter-cluster distances revealed maximum diversity between genotypes of clusters XVI and XVII. Intra-cluster distance was maximum for cluster XVIII, indicating the existence of variability within the cluster. A perusal of the results on cluster means revealed greater yield for cluster XII indicating the desirability of genotypes from the cluster for improvement of grain yield. Further milling percentage, days to 50 per cent flowering, number of grains panicle-1, 1000-seed weight and head rice recovery percentage, together accounted for 89.79 per cent of the total genetic divergence, indicating their importance as selection criteria in the choice of parents for hybridization programmes.

Keywords

• d2 analysis
• genetic divergence
• rice.