Component analysis of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) for horticultural traits and yield

Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) is an important salad vegetable grown for its green crispy leaves. It is rich in vitamin C, pro-vitamin A, phosphorous, calcium and potassium. Principal component analysis (PCA) is a tool of multivariate analysis in which one seeks for linear combination of original characters, which are called principal components, so that most of the variability present in the data is accounted for in a few principal components only. The component analysis revealed that first principal component (PC₁) contributed 56.27% in pooled data, 60.22% in winter and 41.72% in summer of total variability among the genotypes studied. Maximum contribution to the PC₁ in terms of loading was from plant spread (−0.450) on pooled basis. Using principal component analysis, genotypes were screened out on the basis of seven characters, viz. plant height (cm), plant spread (cm), no. of leaves/plant, average leaf weight (g), leaf area (cm2), days to first picking and leaf yield/plant (g) and it was found that LS-2 was performing better in both the seasons followed by Simpson and LS-17 in winter, and DPHL-1 and Simpson in summer, which can be further evaluated and used in breeding programme for improvement in lettuce.