ASSESSMENT OF MORPHO- MOLOECULAR VARIATION IN KENAF

Abstract

Germplasm plays an important role for developing new varieties of crops to the plant bredders. In Bangladesh, kenaf is geeting more attention as the substitute of jute and breeding new varieties of kenaf is time demanding. In the present research, morphological and genetic variation of 51 kenaf germplasms were analysed. Analysis revealed that genotype HC-92 had the higer plant height (3.4 m) with base diameter (27.3 mm), higher number of node in each plant, plant weight with or without leaves and fiber yield (37.9 g) compare to the other kenaf accessions. However, internode length, number of fruit and seeds and dry stick weight was higher in kenaf accession 5018, 5083, 1623 and 3746, respectively. Analysis also found the higher phenotypic variation than the genetic variation. During genotypic variation analysis, three primers among the sixteen primers produced polymorphism in kenaf accessions. The dendrogram had indicated segregation of 51 germplasms of Kenaf into 8 clusters where cluster II consisted 18 and cluster III consisted 20 accessions respectively. The information obtained in this study can be used for further breeding programs for the improvement of kenaf in Bangladesh.