Genetic divergence study in improved bread wheat varieties (Triticum aestivum)

The genetic divergence study was conducted to estimate the nature and magnitude of diversity in improved varieties of bread wheat during four Winter season, 2008 to 2012. The divergence analysis including Tocher’s, canonical (vector) and Euclidian methods indicated the presence of appreciable amount of genetic diversity in the experimental materials. The thirteen wheat genotypes were grouped into four clusters by both Tocher’s and Euclidian methods of divergence study. But the clusters of both methods were different on the basis of the genotypes and their numbers present in the cluster. The result obtained from different methods of divergence study was slightly different from each others. The suitable genotypes for the different characters have been drawn from the all three methods of divergence study. The result of principal component analysis revealed that only three principal component accounted more than 80% of the total variation. 3D diagram based on PCA scores and Euclidian distance matrix reflected highest diversity between PBW343 and HS375 while minimum between RSP564 and RSP561. The information obtained from this study can be used to plan crosses and maximized the use of genetic diversity and expression of heterosis.   Key word: Wheat, genetic divergence, cluster analysis.