Genetic Diversity Analysis of Land Races of Maize (Zea mays L.) in Gujarat Lahane P.S.1,*, Ravindrababu Y.2, Gami R.A.1, Khule A. A.1, Acharya S.2 1Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, C.P. College of Agriculture 2S.D. Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar-385 506, Gujarat *email: prafull.lahane@gmail.com
Online published on 15 December, 2016. Abstract The present investigation was carried out to estimate morphological diversity in 25 land races of maize through Mahalanobis's D2 analysis for twelve morphological characters. Based on D2 statistics, 25 maize land races were grouped into 6 clusters. Among the 6 clusters, cluster I was the largest with twelve land races followed by clusters II and III (4 land races each); cluster IV (3 land races) and clusters V and VI (1 land race each) respectively. The clusters V and VI were monogenotypic or solitary clusters. The maximum inter-cluster distance (12.94) was between the cluster IIand III, while the maximumintra-cluster distance (4.68) was observed in cluster IV indicating maximum diversity inland races studied. The average cluster mean for 12 different characters showed that the genotypes included in cluster I had minimum mean for days to 50 per cent tasselling and days to 50 per cent silking in desirable direction. Cluster II had maximum ear height (cm) and shelling percentage. Cluster IIIhad minimum mean for days to 75% brown husk maturity in desirable direction. Cluster IV had highest number of grain rows per ear. Cluster V had maximum plant height (cm), while cluster VI had highest ear length (cm), ear girth (cm), number of grains per row, 100-seed weight and grain yield per plant (g). Top Keywords Genetic Divergence, Maize, D2 Analysis, Zea mays. Top |