GENETIC DIVERGENCE IN FODDER OAT (AVENA SATIVA L.) FOR YIELD AND QUALITY TRAITS
ATMAN POONIA AND D. S. PHOGAT*
Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding
CCS Haryana Agricultural University,
Hisar-125 004 (Haryana), India
*(e-mail : dsphogatccshau@gmail.com)
(Received : 14 August 2017; Accepted : 10 September 2017)
SUMMARY
The present investigation was carried out with 92 genotypes of oat maintained in the germplasm of Forage Section, Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding, CCSHAU, Hisar. The Mahalonbis’ D2 statistics for genetic divergence divided 92 oat genotypes into nine clusters indicating presence of substantial genetic diversity in the evaluated germplasm. The average inter-cluster distance was found to be highest between clusters IV and IX followed by clusters I and VIII. The minimum inter-cluster distance was noticed between clusters V and VI. The minimum intra-cluster distance was noticed in cluster I and highest intra-cluster distance was observed in cluster VII. The clusters I, II and IV had higher cluster mean values for most of the characters. Therefore, use of the genotypes viz., JO 1, ALGERIAN, HFO 912, DULO, UPO 212, OS 6, OS 305, HJ 8, OS 403, HFO 879, HFO 878, JHO 2006-4, JHO 851, HFO 832, HFO 409, HFO 831 and FOS 1/29 which fall in these clusters might be considered as potential parents for obtaining high heterotic response and consequently better segregants for dry matter yield in forage oat.
Key words: Diversity, oat, clusters, fodder