Multivariate Analysis of Seed Yield-Related Traits in Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) Genotypes

Author: Pushpa H.D., Helan Baby Thomas, Anil Kumar A., Mangesh Y. Dudhe, Praduman Yadav and Anjani Kamali

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Abstract

Safflower is highly regarded for its nutritional and pharmaceutical properties. Despite this, the area under safflower crop has been declining over the years, due to its low productivity. Genetic diversity plays an important role in the improvement of crop. Exploiting the existing genetic diversity within the safflower germplasm is crucial in identifying the genotypes with seed yield and wider adaptability. Several statistical methods have been employed for the estimation of diversity among different genotypes. Multivariate analysis is one of the most often used techniques for determining genetic diversity between genotypes. In the present study, a total of 16 safflower advanced breeding lines were evaluated under rainfed conditions during rabi 2021 at ICRISAT-Hyderabad. Data were recorded on nine quantitative traits. The total variation among genotypes was divided into nine Principal Components (PCs). The first three PCs with Eigen values>1 contributed to 73.34% of the total variability among genotypes. Traits with maximum values in PC1 were number of effective capitula and seed yield. PC2 with a 22.82% variation contribution was highly associated with seed yield, number of seeds per capitula, and days to maturity. In PC3 major contributors were plant height and number of effective capitula. Traits viz., plant height, number of effective capitula, number of seeds per capitula, days to maturity and seed yield contributed significant positive component loading to these principal components (PCs). multivariate analysis divided the 16 genotypes into three clusters. The findings from present study revealed that selection for seed yield in safflower may be based on the traits viz., number of effective capitula, number of branches and 100 seed test weight.

Keywords

Correlation, Cluster, Oilseed, Principal Component Analysis, Seed yield

Conclusion

The various statistical techniques employed in this study indicated that the most beneficial characteristics for improvement of seed yield in safflower would likely be the selection based on the seed yield traits viz., number of effective capitula, number of branches, and 100 seed test weight. The genotypes having high genetic diversity and more cluster distance can be used as parents in the crossing program, to recover transgressive segregants for seed yield-related traits. The results of this study could potentially guide future safflower breeding program design and implementation.

References

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How to cite this article

Pushpa H.D., Helan Baby Thomas, Anil Kumar A., Mangesh Y. Dudhe, Praduman Yadav and Anjani Kamali (2023). Multivariate Analysis of Seed Yield-Related Traits in Safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) Genotypes. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(10): 1407-1412.