Study of Genetic Diversity in Garlic(Allium SativumL.) by Using Morphological Characters

Abstract

To find out the Genetic diversity among 40 germplasm of Garlic (Allium sativum L.), an experiment was conducted at Horticultural Research Center (HRC) of Sardar Vallahbhi Patel University of Agriculture & Technology Meerut During Rabi 2014–15 using morphological traits. Divergence analysis grouped the tested genotypes into seven clusters with variable number of entries in each cluster indicating the presence of genetic diversity in the genotypes. The maximum inter-cluster distance (2349.16) was recorded between cluster II and VI, followed by cluster II and VII (2009.54). However, minimum inter cluster distance (217.309) was found between cluster III and IV indicating that the genotypes in these clusters have dissimilarity for morphological features and performance. The bulb production is one of the most important traits in garlic and different clusters have higher mean values for bulb characters i.e. weight per plant, clove length and clove weight. The genotypes ‘PG-20 and Punnur Local from cluster II Chechena and Bhima Omkar from cluster I, Palampur local from cluster V and GG-4 from the cluster IV deserve to be considered as potent parents for further improvement programme. Findings of divergence study of all the 40 accessions suggested that genetic material have sufficient amount of diversity on morphological basis which can be exploited for better recombinant selection as well as hybrid vigour.