1Directorate of Oilseeds Research, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad 500 030 (Andhra Pradesh).
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad 500 030 (Andhra Pradesh).
Genetic divergence of 77 inbred lines of sunflower for 11 characters were assessed by using Mahalanobis's D2 statistic. The genotypes were grouped into 10 clusters. No relationship between geographic origin and genetic diversity was observed. Based on inter cluster distance, maximum genetic diversity was observed between genotypes belonging to cluster II and VII. Hence, the genotypes belonging to above clusters will be very useful in the crossing programme and may result high amount of heterosis. Characters viz., plant height, number of filled seeds per head and head diameter contributed more towards genetic divergence.
Sunflower, genetic divergence