Vol. 10, Issue 11 (2021)

Author(s):
Sonam Singh Thakur, Bhagwat Saran Asati and Shri MK Chandrakar

Abstract:
Mahalanobis D² statistics was used to study genetic divergence for 11 characters in a collection of 20 genotypes of Red Amaranths. These genotypes were grouped into six clusters on the basis of relative magnitude of D² values. The genotypes included in cluster VI are a good source of plant height (cm), no of leaves per plant, no of branches per plant, leaves length (cm), plant fresh weight (gm), dry plant weight (gm) and foliage yield. Maximum 95.79% contribution towards genetic divergence was shown by characters days of first harvest, petiole length (cm), plant height (cm), no of branches per plant, plant fresh weight (gm), leaves width (cm), leaves length (cm) and dry plant weight (gm). Therefore, these characters should be considered while selecting the parents for hybridization programmes. The maximum inter cluster distance indicated that genotypes of cluster VI (Amar-03) and I (Amar-01, Amar-06, Amar-14, Amar-04, Amar-19) are highly divergent. The genotypes grouped in these clusters can be used in breeding programme to get a wide spectrum of variability and transgressive segregants.