Understanding diversity in rice (Oryza sativa L.) germplasm using principle component analysis

A study was conducted with 64 rice (Oryza sativa L.) genotypes to assess the heritable diversity among the parent lines during Kharif crop season. First eight principal components exhibited more than one eigen values and accounted for 83.975 percent of the total variation that comprised of 19.45 (PC 1), 15.94 (PC 2), 10.92 (PC 3), 9.57 (PC 4), 8.90 (PC 5), 7.51 (PC 6), 6.12 (PC 7) and 5.52 (PC 8). CR 3847-1-1-2-2-1 and PAU 3835-12-1-1-1 scored maximum in principal component analysis 1 (PCA 1) and PCA 2, respectively. PC1 contributed maximum towards the total variability (19.45), where characters viz., grain yield per plant, productive tillers per plant, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, number of grains per panicle, plant height, amylose content and hulling per cent explained the maximum variance in this component.