Multivariate analysis and character association for agro-morphological traits in elite rice germplasm

Abstract

The investigation was carried out in fifty elite rice genotypes to understand the association among theyield and yield related components, their direct and indirect effects on the grain yield using correlationand path analysis and the genetic divergence was assessed using multivariate analysis. Significantdifferences were observed among all the genotypes for the traits studied. High amount of heritabilityand genetic advance were observed for plant height, number of tillers per plant, number of productivetillers per plant, panicle weight and number of filled grains per panicle. Character association at bothgenotypic and phenotypic level revealed significant positive association of grain yield per plant withtest weight. Path coefficient analysis revealed that number of productive tillers had highest directpositive effect on grain yield per plant followed by plant height and panicle length. Principalcomponent analysis showed that a cumulative variance of 45% from PC1 attributed by number oftillers per plant, number of productive tillers per plant and days to fifty percent flowering would bebeneficial in contributing to the total morphological diversity. The cluster analysis based on euclideandistance and neighbor joining method grouped the genotypes into six clusters. Cluster II constitutedmaximum number of genotypes (n=15) followed by cluster VI with ten genotypes. Thus the traitswhich contribute to maximum divergence can be focused in selection and divergent genotypes presentin the different clusters can be utilized for further improvement in future breeding programmes.