Estimation of Genetic relatedness among the germplasm accessions of Pearl millet [<i>Pennisetum glaucum</i> (L.) R. Br.

Abstract

To assess the extent of diversity among the pearl millet accessions and to know the relationship among the accessions, the present study was carried out at Department of Millets, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore with fifty genotypes representing diverse geographical origins of the world. Observations were recorded for the fourteen seed yield potential and its component traits in all the accessions. Hierarchial cluster analysis categorized the germplasm accessions in to twelve clusters indicating the presence of high levels of genetic diversity in the gene pool. Cluster II is the largest having 17 genotypes where most of them are the natives of Nigeria, Namibia, Burkina faso and India, while cluster X, XI and XII had one genotype each representing Nambibia, India and Mali, respectively. Clustering pattern of this study indicated that geographical diversity was not related with genetic diversity. The coefficient of similarity was too far between the genotypes 9618 and 18657 (9.99) followed by 6510 and 19361 (9.98) and IP 3616 and Raj 171 (9.95) for seed yield potential and its component traits, which showed that they are highly divergent among the fifty genotypes. The genotypes viz ., 6869, 15899, IP 3616, 10186, 18722, 11310, 14426, 12138 and 17407 had higher score for seed yield potential (7.0) and brix value (5.0) among the 50 genotypes, though they are grouped in different clusters. These genotypes also excelled well for one or more seed yield contributing traits which could be used as potential parents in hybridization programme for transferring the seed yield potential and related traits to get better hybrids/varieties.