Genetic Divergence and Character Association Analysis in Wheat (Triticun1 Aestivum Lj

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted in Wheat during Rabi season 2011-12 at Crop Research Centre, Chirori of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture & Technology, Meerut (U.P.) India. The present investigation entitled, "Genetic divergence and character association analysis in wheat (Triticum aeslivunz.L)" involving 35 genotypes was undertaken to study the genetic variability, heritability, genetic advance, correlation coefficient, path coefficient analysis and genetic divergence. All the 35 wheat genotypes were tested in randomized block design with 3 replications. The characters under study were days to 50 Percent flowering, plant height (em), number of productive tillers per plant, spike length with awn (em), number of spikelets per spike, number of grain per spike, biological yield/plant (g), grain yield/plant (g), harvest index (%), test weight (g), gluten content. Analysis of variance showed high significant variance among the genotypes for all the ~haracters, under study, indicated wide spectrum of variability among the genotypes. The highest percentage of PCV and GCV (in percent) observed for biological yield per plant, spike length, test weight, grain yield per plant and harvest index. High estimates of heritability in broad sense recorded for gluten content, plant height, biological yield per plant, test weight, days to maturity, spikeletes per spike, spike length, days to 50 per cent flowering and harvest index. In general highest genetic advance as percentage of mean was recorded for grain yield per plant, biological yield per plant, spike length, test weight, plant height and harvest index. The characters such as plant height, biological yield per plant, spike length, harvest index and test weight had high heritability coupled with high genetic adva~ce, suggesting that improvement could be brought about by direct selection for these characters in the genotypes. In the character association studies, showed highly significant and positive correlation of grain yield with biological yield per plant, tillers per plant, days to maturity, harvest index, grain per spikelets and test weight both at genotypic and phenotypic level. Path coefficient analysis of grain yield and its contributing characters revealed that biological yield per plant, harvest index, spikeltes per spike and days to 50 per cent flowering had the highest positive direct effect on grain yield. The direct effect of days to maturity, tillers per plant and grain per spikelets showed negative direct effects on grain yield but their correlation with grain yield was significantly positive which may be due to high positive indirect effects via other characters. The results of genetic divergence analysis indicated the presences of high amount of genetic diversity among the genotypes were taken up for the study. The 35 wheat genotypes were grouped into six clusters based on Mahalanobis 0 2 analysis. The higest inter custer distance was found between cluster Ill and V · Whereas, the lowest inter cluster difference was reflected between cluster I .and II. The highest intra cluster difference was expressed by the cluster V and lowest by the cluster IV.