Assessment of genetic diversity in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L. em. Thell), genotypes based on agro-morphological traits using Mahalanobis D2 statistic.

摘要

Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L. em. Thell), an allohexaploid (2n=6x=42), is the premier food crop of worldwide importance. It is also a crop where conventional plant breeding has paid rich dividend, as epitomized by the Green Revolution. The present investigation was conducted in two crop seasons, 2009-10 and 2010-11. The objectives of this investigation were to estimate relative phenotypic variability for different characters among wheat germplasm lines, characterization of germplasm by agro-morphological traits, to assess the genetic diversity in the genotypes based on agro-morphological traits. The experimental material comprised of 300 indigenous accessions of wheat along with 4 checks namely, DBW17, UP2338, PBW 550 and C 306. The data were recorded for 12 agronomic traits. The genetic diversity was estimated with the help of D2 Mahalanobis statistics.