Vol. 9, Issue 1 (2020)

Author(s):
K Sudeepthi, T Srinivas, BNVSR Ravi Kumar, Jyothula DPB and SK Nafeez Umar

Abstract:
The present investigation was carried out to study the inherent genetic diversity of 107 rice genotypes towards development of rice varieties with tolerance for germination under anaerobic conditions for use in wet direct seeded rice cultivation system. The diversity was evaluated using multivariate analysis technique of Mahalanobis D². The 107 rice genotypes studied were grouped into 12 clusters. Cluster I was largest with 25 genotypes followed by 23, 21, 13, 10 and 9 genotypes each in clusters II, III, V, IV and cluster VI, respectively further one genotype each in cluster VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII. The pattern of distribution of genotypes into various clusters was observed to be at random with no relation to geographical diversity. Results on inter-cluster distances revealed maximum diversity between genotypes of cluster X and cluster XII, while intra-cluster distance was noticed to be maximum for cluster VI. Cluster II had recorded higher cluster mean values for the trait anaerobic response index. Further, the traits, namely, seedling dry weight, root length, germination per cent and shoot length together accounted for 99.87 per cent of the total genetic divergence in the study.