Study of Genetic Diversity Analysis in Amaranth (Amaranthus Spp.) by Using Morpho-agronomic Trait

Abstract

The field experiment entitled "Study of Genetic Diversity Analysis in Amaranth (Amarantus spp.) by using Morpho-agronomic Traits" was conducted at Horticulture Research Centre, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut (UP) 250110 during Rabi season in 2021-22. During the study the analysis of variance for 19 genotypes of Amaranthus in the randomized block design and revealed significant difference for all the 12 characters, this indicated the presence of wide spectrum of variability among the genotypes. The phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was higher than the respective genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) for all the traits, a narrow difference between PCV and GCV were recorded for all of the traits. High heritability and genetic advance as per cent of mean were observed for all twelve characters. The highest heritability was recorded in number of Biological yield per plant and lowest for Days to germination. Correlation coefficient studies indicated that genotypic correlation coefficient were found to be higher than phenotypic correlation coefficients for most of the characters, indicating a strong inherent association between various characters and significantly affected by environmental components in regard to plhenotypic expression. Seed yield kg per ha expressed highly significant and positive correlation with seed yield per plant, biological yield ton per ha and biological yield per plant which implies that these characters were the primer contributing factors to seed yield. All the combination of traits should be considered, while breeding programme for selecting high yielding genotypes and suitable for breeders to achieving improved plant type. Path coffecient analysis revealed that highest positive direct effect on seed yield kg per ha was observed for biological yield per plant, seed yield per plant, number of leaf per plant, days to maturity, days to germination, inflorescence length, fresh leaf weight and plant height. Improvement of these characters might be improved. The analysis of genetic divergence through Mahalanobis D statistics revealed that a considerable genetic diversity was found among genotypes. 19 genotypes of Amaranthus were grouped into 5 clusters. Out of the 5 clusters, Cluster II contains maximum number of genotypes that is seven, followed by cluster I which comprising six genotypes, Cluster IlI comprising four genotypes, whereas cluster IV and V containing only one genotype each. Based on present investigation, it was concluded that in general, there was parallelism between genetie and geographic diversity. Maxímum inter cluster distance was determined between clusters II and cluster V so crosses among these genotypes can be made as aparent for getting better hybrids.