Evaluation of genetic diversity in Lepidium sativum L. germplasm based on multivariate analysis

Abstract

Lepidium sativum L. is a fast-growing and underutilized medicinal plant. The Indian system of medicinal and health recognized this plant as a source of several medicinal and nutraceutical molecules. The 94 accessions collected from different eco-geographical region of India were evaluated for two consecutive years to assess the level of genetic variability. The ANOVA revealed considerable variability for all the quantitative traits. The hierarchical clustering grouped all the accessions into 6 clusters. The clustering showed that majority of accessions i.e. 68 (72%) were genetically close as they grouped into three clusters (I, IV, V). The intra-cluster values ranged from 138.89 (cluster I) to 26.92 (cluster IV). The minimum inter-cluster distance was recorded 51.63 (between cluster III and IV), while the maximum inter-cluster distance was 361.02 (between cluster II and VI). The correlation among the traits were found to be of similar magnitude and direction for almost all the traits. The highest and lowest broad sense heritability was recorded for plant height (88.88%) and number of lateral branches (26.98%) respectively in first year, while in second year, the number of silique/plant (97.30%) and date of emergence (4.36%) respectively. The high estimates of genetic advance were noticed for all the traits except plant height, days of maturity and number of silique/plant. Through the present investigation diverse accessions have been identified that could utilized for further genetic improvement of Lepidium sativum.