Indian Journal of Genetics and Plant Breeding (The)
Year : 1981, Volume : 41, Issue : 2
First page : ( 186) Last page : ( 190)
Print ISSN : 0019-5200. Online ISSN : 0975-6906.

Genetic Divergence in Pearl Millet

Singh Y. P., Kumar Awadhesh, Chauhan B. P. S.

Botany Dept., R. B. S. College, Bichpuri, Agra

Abstract

Nine pearl millet inbreds and their 36 F₁ hybrids were subjected to multivariate analysis through Mahalanobis D²-statistic and subsequently grouped into 15 clusters. Of these, clusters I and III were quite large consisting of 12 and 9 genotypes respectively. Genetic divergence has not been found to be essentially related with geographic diversity. The parents of the hybrids were found to be grouped in 3 clusters. Cluster I included IP 2000 while cluster II and III consisted of IP 2040, Ici 7504 and IP 2036, IP 2051, IP 2263, Ici 7511, Ici 7502 and Ici 7503 respectively. On the basis of the hybrid performance it is concluded that the genotypes Ici 7504 and Ici 7502 falling under distant groups and having greater genetic divergence should be used in hybridization programme as they are likely to produce desirable heterotic effects for the traits under improvement. In addition to these, genotypes IP 2036 and Ici 7511 falling under the same group may also be used as parents in the hybridization programme as they complement some major weaknesses of each other.

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