Studies on genetic diversity in rice TGMS lines

Abstract

One hundred and nineteen rice temperature sensitive genetic male sterile lines (TGMS) were used to study the  magnitude of 
genetic diversity  for ten yield traits using Mahalanobis  D2 analysis.  Based on Torcher’s cluster analysis, the 119 genotypes 
were grouped into nine clusters.  Cluster I was maximum with 85 genotypes followed by cluster II with 15 genotypes and 
cluster III with 11 genotypes,.  The clusters namely IV, VI, VII, VIII, and IX were solitary clusters with one genotype each. 
The maximum  inter cluster distance was  observed with clusters V and IX followed by cluster V and VIII which indicates 
the  genotypes present  in these cluster having  more divergence.  The highest intra cluster distance was observed in cluster 
III (22.08). Among the traits, number of grains per panicle (49.76 %) followed by number of productive tillers (23.43%), 
spikelet fertility (14.46%) and pollen fertility (9.93%) exhibited maximum contribution towards total divergence among the 
genotypes studied. Hence, these characters could be given importance for selection of genotypes for further crop 
improvement program.