The availability of access to diverse genetic material is important to be successful in any plant breeding effort. An investigation was undertaken to assess genetic diversity of 24 known rice genotypes based on17 morpho- agronomic traits by using multivariate analyses: hierarchical cluster and Principal Component (PC) analyses. Cluster analysis separated the genotypes into two groups which are in contrast for flowering, plant types, biomass, grain yield , seed width, seed length and seed weight. The first three PCs explained 73.5% of the total variability. Days to flowering, plant height, culm length, panicle length, biomass, seed length and shape were the important traitsin differentiating the genotypes. The hierarchical cluster and PC analyses were in agreement in grouping the genotypes. Parental combinations from the two clusters with higher value of Euclidean distance could be used for genetic improvement. Generally KOH1 is the most diverged genotype from others. Thus crossing of this genotype with Azucena, CH1, KDML105 and SPR1 may result in heterotic expression in the F1 and substantial variability in the subsequent segregating population.
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