The present investigation was carried out to determine genetic diversity among thirty Linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) genotypes during Rabi2019-20 at Research farm, College of Agriculture, Agriculture University, Kota. Divergence analysis is helpful in identifying diverse parents for realizing high heterotic effects with transgressive segregants in later generations. Thirty genotypes were grouped into six clusters. Cluster I constituted maximum number of genotype followed by cluster III, cluster II, cluster V, cluster IV and cluster VI. Cluster V (173.32) had the highest intra-cluster distance followed by cluster I (112.05), cluster III (85.66), cluster II (69.72), cluster IV (0.00) and cluster VI (0.00).Cluster IV and VI (1728.35) had the highest inter-cluster distance followed by cluster I and VI (1062.19) and cluster III and IV (947.45). Suggested that the genotypes from these cluster may use hereafter be as a parents for future hybridization programme to obtain heterotic recombinants or even transgressive segregants.

Cluster analysis, D2 statistics, Linseed, Genetic Diversity

The experiment suggested that a considerable extent of genetic divergence was present among 30 genotypes of linseed. Cluster V had the highest intra cluster distance followed by cluster I, III and cluster II. The intra-cluster distance for cluster IV and VI was observed to zero since these contains one genotype. The highest inter-cluster distance was found between cluster IV and VI followed by cluster I and VI, cluster III and IV.Maximum mean value was observed in cluster II for characters like protein content. Clusters IV had high values for plant height, number of primary branches per plant, oil content and also desirable for early flowering and maturity. Characters viz., harvest index, test weight and number of capsules per plant had maximum values in Cluster V. Similarly, characters viz., number of seeds per capsule, seed yield per plant, biological yield per plant had maximum values in cluster VI. Therefore, hybridization between the selected genotypes form divergent clusters is crucial to wisely combine all the targeted traits. Nevertheless, maximum contribution to divergence was given by oil content, followed by test weight and protein content. Hence, these characters should be taken under consideration for future breeding program.

Subhash Chand, Sandhya, Manoj Kumar, Yamini Tak and H.P. Meghwal (2022). Analysis of Genetic Diversity in Linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.) Genotypes. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 14(4a): 526-529.