Diversity of Salt Resistance in a Large Germplasm Collection of Bread Wheat (Triticum Aestivum L.)

The nature and magnitude of genetic divergence was assessed using non-hierarchical Euclidean cluster analysis in 300 genotypes of bread wheat for grain yield and its associated characters. All the genotypes were grouped in 7 different clusters. The clustering pattern revealed the distribution of the genotypes belonging to the same origin in more than one cluster indicating non-parallelism between geographic and genetic diversity. The intra cluster variation was highest in cluster VI. Members of cluster VI and VII were highly diverse from each other as these clusters showed maximum inter cluster distance. The entries of cluster VII showed the highest mean values for plant height, tillers per plant and grain yield per plant. The promising genotypes for gain yield, 1000-grain weight, tillering capacity and grain numbers under saline conditions were identified from clusters VI and VII on the basis of mean values which could be utilized for introgressing their useful traits in the commercial wheat genotypes.