CHARACTER ASSOCIATION AND GENETIC DIVERSITY ANALYSIS IN POTATO (Solanum tuberosum L.)

Abstract

The experiment was conducted with twenty genotypes of potato at the experimental farm of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka during the period from November2017 to March 2018 to estimate the genetic variability, correlation and diversity among the twenty (20) genotypes of potato. The experiment was conducted using Randomized Complete Block Design with three replications. All the twenty (20) genotypes varied significantly with each other for all the studied characters indicated the presence of considerable variations among the genotypes studied. The phenotypic co-efficient of variation ( PCV) values were higher than the respective genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) values for all the characters under study. No of Secondary

branches

per plant, leaf breadth, no. of tuber per plant, individual weight of tuber, tuber yield per plant and yield (ton/ha) showed high heritability along with high genetic advance as percentage of mean were normally more helpful in predicting the genetic gain under selection. From the correlation analysis it was revealed that yield per ha was significantly positively correlated with secondary branches per plant, tuber per plant, individual tuber weight and tuber yield per plant at both genotypic and phenotypic levels suggesting that the selection for these traits would helpful for the improvement of yield per ha. As per principal component analysis (PCA), D and clusters analysis the genotypes were grouped into five different clusters. Clusters V had the maximum nine and cluster II and IV had the minimum one genotype. The highest inter-cluster distance was observed between II and IV and the lowest was observed between I and V. Genotypes in cluster II showed maximum performance for yield per ha, tuber yield per plant, individual tuber weight, tuber number per plant, tuber breadth, no of secondary branches per plant and plant height. Cluster III showed maximum performance for no of primary branches per plant and tuber length. Cluster V showed highest value for leaf length and leaf breadth. Considering this idea and other characteristic performances, genotype G19 (BARI Alu-46) from cluster II; genotype G18 (BARI Alu-41) and G2 (BARI Alu-49) from cluster I and G12 (BARI Alu-24) from cluster IV might be considered to suggest farmer for cultivation for better yield as well as use as parent for efficient hybridization programme for further improvement. 2