Analysis of Genetic Diversity in Potato (Solanum Tuberosum L.)

Abstract

Twenty one genotypes of potato were evaluated at Horticulture Research Centre of SVP University of Agriculture & Technology, Meerut during Rabi season 2021-22.The experiment was carried out in Randomized Block Design with three replications. Potato (Solanum tuberosum L. 2n=4x=48) is known as the "King of vegetables" and belongs to the solanaceae family. The origin of Potato is central Andean region of South America. The analysis of variance revealed significant among all the genotypes for all the 11 characters under study. The high percentage (>20%) of genotypic coefficient of variation and phenotypic coefficient of variation for length of internodes, plant height, number of stem plant-1, tuber yield plant-1, number of nodes at 30 DAP, number of tubers plant-1 while moderate (10-20%) for number of leaves at 60 DAP, number of nodes at 60 DAP, tuber size, number of leaves at 30 DAP and lowest (<10) in germination % at 20 DAP. Further the present finding exhibited that the estimate of PCV was magnitude greater than the GCV for all characters indicating the important role of environment the expression of characters. So that character would be more effective to improve the crop. The range of heritability varies from 40.23% for germination % at 20 DAP to 98.85% for tuber yield plant-1. The highest heritability estimates for tuber yield plant-1, number of leaves at 60 DAP, number of nodes at 60 DAP, plant height, number of nodes at 30 DAP, tuber size, length of internodes, number of tubers plant-1, number of stem plant-1, number of leaves at 30 DAP. The range of genetic advance was varies from 6.19% for germination % at 20 DAP to 59.39% for length of internodes. The estimates of genetic advance as percent of mean was exhibited high for length of internodes, plant height, tuber yield plant-1, number of stem plant-1, number of nodes at 30 DAP, number of tubers plant-1, number of leaves at 60 DAP, number of nodes at 60 DAP, tuber size. In general, genotypic correlation coefficients were found to be greater than phenotypic correlation coefficients. Tuber yield plant-1 showed positive and highly significant correlation with tuber size, number of leaves at 60 DAP, number of tubers plant-1, germination % at 20 DAP while, positive and less-significant correlation with number of leaves at 30 DAP. Path analysis result was obtained positive and direct effect on tuber yield plant-1 was exerted by the length of internodes, tuber size, number of tubers plant-1, number of nodes at 30 DAP, number of leaves at 60 DAP, germination % at 20 DAP and negative direct effect on tuber yield per plant was recorded by the plant height, number of nodes at 60 DAP, number of stem plant-1 and number of leaves at 30 DAP. Twenty one genotypes of potato were grouped into five clusters. The cluster I comprised highest eight genotypes, cluster V comprised five genotypes, Cluster III comprised four genotypes and minimum genotypes comprised in Cluster II and Cluster IV respectively. The range of intra-cluster distance was from 1.545 to 2.248. The maximum intra-cluster distance was recorded in cluster I, cluster V, cluster II, cluster IV and minimum intra-cluster distance was found in cluster III. The maximum inter-cluster distance was observed in cluster IV and II and the minimum inter-cluster distance was found in cluster III and I.