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 the
yield and yield related components, their direct and indirect effects on the grain yield using correlation
and path analysis and the genetic divergence was assessed using multivariate analysis. Significant
differences were observed among all the genotypes for the traits studied. High amount of heritability
and genetic advance were observed for plant height, number of tillers per plant, number of productive
tillers per plant, panicle weight and number of filled grains per panicle. Character association at both
genotypic and phenotypic level revealed significant positive association of grain yield per plant with
test weight. Path coefficient analysis revealed that number of productive tillers had highest direct
positive effect on grain yield per plant followed by plant height and panicle length. Principal
component analysis showed that a cumulative variance of 45% from PC1 attributed by number of
tillers per plant, number of productive tillers per plant and days to fifty percent flowering would be
beneficial in contributing to the total morphological diversity. The cluster analysis based on euclidean
distance and neighbor joining method grouped the genotypes into six clusters. Cluster II constituted
maximum number of genotypes (n=15) followed by cluster VI with ten genotypes. Thus the traits
which contribute to maximum divergence can be focused in selection and divergent genotypes present
in the different clusters can be utilized for further improvement in future breeding programmes.