Genetic Divergence and Correlations Study in Chlorophytum borivilianum

摘要

Continuous shrinking of natural resources (forest) led to the cultivation of Chlorophytum borivilianum, an ayurvedic crude drug, hits necessitated the genetic improvement program of the aforesaid crop. The plant is a member of family liliaceae and naturally occurring populations are open-pollinated, with varying levels of performance. The objective Of this Study was to assess, characterize, quantify and suitably utilize available genetic variability. Genetic divergence among 31 genotypes was determined using nine characters of C borivilianum of indigenous origin via Mahalanobis D-2 statistic. The genotypes were grouped into eight clusters. Intra-cluster distance was largest For cluster VIII (nine genotypes), followed by cluster I (six genotypes).Inter-cluster D-2 values recorded between cluster II and III and those between cluster III and VI indicated the possibility of raising transgressed hybrids from cross hybridization programs using divergent parents of these four clusters. The clustering pattern indicated that geographical diversity was not necessarily related with genetic diversity. Leaf number contributed most toward divergence (15.8%), followed by finger number, length and width (each with at least 13% contribution) and leaf length (12.1%). Correlation analysis for root yield (dependent variable) and the remaining seven plant traits (independent variables) revealed that leaf number, leaf length and finger number, which had contributed highly to divergence, had also significant associations with root yield. The D-2 and correlation results suggested that the variability for the three traits (leaf number, leaf length and finger number) could be reliable selection criterion for root yield in C. borivilianum.