Vol. 13 No. 3
Genetic diversity in marigold genotypes
Author(s): M. Choudhary, B. S. Beniwal and A. Kumari
Abstract: The present investigation was carried out at the Research Farm of Department of Horticulture, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana during two winter season of 2011-12 and 2012-13 in a randomized block design (RBD) with three replications to assess the genetic variability and diversity in thirty genotypes of marigold. The mean sums of squares were highly significant for all the characters studied, indicating the presence of variability. Highest range of variation was reported with fresh weight of plant followed by flower yield plant-1, whereas dry weight of flower exhibited minimum range of variation. The PCV was higher in magnitude than the GCV for all the characters. During both the years of investigation, the high genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation were recorded for fresh and dry weight of plant, number of secondary branches plant-1 and number of buds and flowers plant-1, whereas, low genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation were recorded for flower diameter and days taken to first flower opening. High heritability with high genetic advance was found with fresh and dry weight of plant, number of secondary branches plant-1 and number of buds and flowers plant-1. High genetic advance as per cent was observed for fresh and dry weight of plant, number of flowers plant-1, number of secondary branches plant-1 and number of buds plant-1 revealing the importance of additive gene effects for these traits. All the thirty genotypes of marigold were grouped into six clusters based on Mahalanobis D2 statistics using Tocher’s method. The clustering pattern of genotypes revealed that the genetic diversity was independent of the geographical diversity. Among the six clusters, cluster-II was largest with 12 genotypes, followed by cluster-IV (11), cluster-V (3), cluster-I (2) and clusters-III and VI with one genotype each. The maximum inter-cluster distance was observed between clusters-V and VI (D2=13.94), closely followed by clusters-I and VI (12.73) and clusters-IV and VI (12.36). The intra- cluster distance was highest in cluster-V (4.88) and minimum in cluster-I (2.80).
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