Vol. 11, Issue 6 (2022)

Author(s):
Ashish Narayan, K Dileep, T Alam, RS Singh, GS Giri, R Prasad and PP Singh

Abstract:
A study was undertaken on genetic variability by evaluating 20 genotypes of colour fleshed sweet potato considering fourteen quantitative characters viz. vine length(cm) at 60 and 120 dap, number of branches/plant at 60 and 120 dap, internode length(cm) at 60 and 120 dap, leaf area index, number of tubers/plant, total tuber yield/plant(g), tuber weight(g), tuber length(cm), tuber girth(cm), biological yield/plant(g) and harvest index (%). The analysis of variance revealed that mean squares due to genotypes were highly significant for all the studied characters. Wide range of variability was observed for the characters such as biological yield/plant, vine length, leaf area index, average tuber weight, harvest index and tuber yield/plant. The phenotypic coefficient of variation was more than genotypic coefficient of variation for all the characters studied. High heritability estimates coupled with high genetic advance as percent of means were observed for characters like vine length, leaf area index, number of tubers/plant, tuber yield/plant, average tuber weight, tuber girth, biological yield/plant and harvest index indicating effectiveness of selection for these traits. Divergence studies categorized the 20 sweet potato genotypes into 4 distinct clusters. Cluster-I was the largest cluster having 10 genotypes followed by cluster-II with 8 genotypes and cluster-III and IV were mono-genotypic. Among four clusters, cluster-II showed maximum intra-cluster diversity (D² = 7.58) followed by cluster I (D²= 7.37). However, maximum inter cluster distance was exhibited between cluster II and III (17.78), followed by cluster II and IV (16.60) and cluster I and II (12.54) exhibiting sufficient genetic diversity among the genotypes of these clusters.