A study of character association and genetic divergence in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Abstract

An experiment with 50 genotypes of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) was conducted to study the character association and genetic divergence on various quantitative characters with grain yield per plant. The maximum and positive phenotypic correlation coefficient was observed for seeds per plant with biological yield per plant, harvest, index, 100-grain weight, and the number of grains per ear. The path coefficient analysis at the phenotypic level revealed that harvest index, biological yield per plant, and days of 50 per cent flowering showed a positive direct effect on grain yield per plant. Hence, selection based n these characters would bring an improvement in T. aestivum. The genotypes were grouped into eight clusters. Cluster VII was the biggest with 11 genotypes followed by clusters II, IV, I, and V with nine, eight, six, and six, respectively. The maximum inter-cluster distance observed between clusters VIII and III was 4.995 which showed maximum genetic diversity between these two clusters followed by clusters VII and VI (4.648), clusters VII and II (4.644), clusters III and I (4.641) and clusters VIII and VII (4.318) indicating wide divergence among these clusters, which also suggested that the genetic architecture of the genotypes in one cluster differed entirely from those included clusters. The diversity among the genotypes measured by inter-cluster distance (D value) was adequate for T. aestivum by hybridization and selection.