GENETIC DIVERSITY ANALYSIS IN COMMERCIAL SUGARCANE (SACCHARUM OFFICINARUML.) GENOTYPES

Abstract

The present research was carried out to analyze the genetic diversity of commercial sugarcane varieties for various quantitative and qualitative traits including plant height (cm), tillers plant-1, internodes plant-1, internodes length (cm), cane girth (cm), weight stool-1, brix (%), sucrose (%), fiber (%), commercial cane sugar (%), sugar recovery (%) and purity (%). In total, six genotypes of sugarcane were evaluated using analysis of variance, principal component analysis, cluster analysis and coefficient of parentage. Results displayed that sugarcane genotypes differed highly significantly for all the studied traits, registering the significant genetic diversity among the genotypes for further evaluation. With regards to genetic distance, out of the 15 pairs of comparisons, a good number of pairs exposed greater genetic distance; consequently, these pairs can further be utilized in sugarcane breeding for getting useful clone with great hybrid vigor. In cluster analysis, all genotypes divided into three clusters, indicating the existence of wider genetic diversity among the tested sugarcane genotypes. From PCA analysis, three components were isolated from twelve studied characters. The first, second and third components attributed 54.10, 26.70 and 13.10 % of total variation, respectively. The cumulative percent of variance accounted for 93.90% in the first three components, demonstrating a considerably high variability that can be exploited for further breeding programs in sugarcane breeding.