Traits selection criteria for genetic improvement of grain and leafy Amaranth (Amaranthus spp) using Principal Component Analysis

Abstract

Grain Amaranths are important nutritional vegetables in the world for their grains and leaves. Twelve grain Amaranth accessions were evaluated for their performances using randomized complete block design with 3 replications for 2 years to measure variability and group the accessions. Analysis of Variance and accessions performances revealed significant variability among the grain Amaranths. Phenotypic variances were higher in magnitude than genotypic variance for all the traits studied. High genetic advance was obtained for all the characters except 1000 grain weight (23.61). The genotypic coefficients of variations were lower than the phenotypic coefficient of variations. Heritability ranged from 41.08% for grain yield/plot to 62.18% for plant height at flowering. Grain yield was positive and highly significantly correlated with 1000 grain weight, leaf area but significantly correlated with leaf length and leaf width. The PCA revealed four main components of variations representing 78.06% of the total variability among the 12 grain amaranth accessions. The PCA identified all the 12 traits as strongly correlated with the three principal components. PC1 is well-correlated with Plant height at flowering, Stem girth, Number of leaves, Plant height at maturity, leaf width, leaf length, leaf area and Petiole length. The bi-plot analysis classified the accession NG/AA/03/11/010, NGB 01259, and NGB 0127 as having good leaf yield and desired leaf traits, Accession NHGB/09/108, NG/AO/08/04 and NGB 01261 were grouped as better grain yield with good yield attributes, while accession NGB 01234, NHGB 09/09 and NHAC3 are good dual purpose accessions having good grain and leaf yield.