1National Research Centre on Seed Spices, Tabiji, Ajmer, Rajasthan-305206, (India)
Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur-313001, Rajasthan, India
*Corresponding author's e-mail: radhebiotech88@gmail.com
Online published on 28 October, 2015.
Genetic divergence assessed in twenty diverse genotypes of maize (Zea mays L.) using D2 statistics for eleven characters enabled grouping of all the genotypes in five clusters. Test weight, leaf number, harvest index, days to 50 percent flowering and plant height were the major contributors for genetic diversity among the genotypes. Cluster II was the largest contained 6 genotypes followed by cluster III which possessed 5 genotypes. The cluster I, V and IV possessed 4, 3 and 2 genotypes, respectively. Each cluster has different types of genotypes irrespective to their nature of genetic make up belonging to hybrids, composites and land races. The cluster III exhibited maximum intra-cluster distance (30.92), while maximum inter-cluster distance was noted between cluster I and III (91.55).
Cluster analysis, D2 analysis, Genetic divergence, Maize
