Genetic diversity for moisture deficit stress adaptive traits in bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

A study was conducted to evaluate the genetic divergence for morphological and phenological traits under rainfed conditions in wheat. Seed material comprised of the 294 wheat genotypes used for this study and grouped into six clusters. Among the six clusters, cluster IV contained 86 and cluster I had 68 genotypes, followed by 12 genotypes in cluster V. Fifty one genotypes were grouped in cluster VI and 52 were included in cluster II, while cluster III was represented by 27 genotypes. Maximum cluster mean for the character grain yield per plot was observed for the cluster III (667.1) followed by cluster V (559.3). The minimum cluster mean under the rainfed conditions was observed for the cluster IV (269.3). Intra cluster distance was maximum for cluster III (3.125). The highest inter cluster distance was noted between cluster II and cluster IV (4.997). Parentage of 294 genotypes revealed that genotypes belonging to different eco-geographical areas were included in the same cluster. This indicated that there was no association between clustering pattern and eco-geographical distribution of genotypes. © 2013 Indian Society for Plant Physiology.