Genetic diversity pattern in wheat [Triticum aestivum (L.) em. TheiL]

Abstract

The present study was aimed at evaluation of the genotypes and simultaneous clustering into diverse group in order to identify desirable parents for recombinant breeding to break the existing yield platue in wheat [Triticum aestivum (L.) em. TheiL]. The experiment was conducted at Crop Research Centre, G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar during rabi 2000-2001. Sixty elite breeding lines of wheat were evaluated for yield components in augmented design with three checks. Field layout consisted of six blocks with thirteen genotypes each and checks replicated in all the blocks. Each entry was sown in five rows of 5m length with a spacing of 23 em x 10 em. Days to heading and tillers per m2 were recorded on plot basis, however, observations on other yield components viz., plant height, grains per spike, test weight and biological yield along with seed yield were taken on a random sample of ten plants from each plot excluding the border rows. Harvest index was calculated as percentage of seed yield over biological yield. Data was sUbjected to analysis of variance for augmented design. Means for all characters were adjusted for block effect and used for genetic divergence analysis through hierarchical cluster analysis procedure [1].