Genotypic diversity in vegetable amaranth for antioxidant, nutrient and agronomic traits

Umakanta Sarker; Md. Tofazzal Islam; Md. Golam Rabbani; Shinya Oba

Umakanta Sarker Department of Botany, Hislop College, Temple Road, Civil Lines, Nagpur 440 001
Md. Tofazzal Islam Department of Botany, RTM Nagpur University, MJP Educational Campus, Amravati Road, Nagpur 440 033
Md. Golam Rabbani Department of Botany, RTM Nagpur University, MJP Educational Campus, Amravati Road, Nagpur 440 033;
Shinya Oba Department of Botany, RTM Nagpur University, MJP Educational Campus, Amravati Road, Nagpur 440 033

Keywords: Ascorbic acid, beta carotene, multivariate analysis, D2 statistics, clustering.

Abstract

In this investigation, magnitude of genetic divergence was studied in 25 vegetable amaranth using D2 statistics. The genotypes were grouped into 5 clusters with the highest number of genotypes (10) in cluster V. High inter-cluster distance indicated that genotypes of cluster III were far diverged from the genotypes in cluster I, II and IV, respectively. The PCA indicated prominent contribution of protein, foliage yield, leaf area and Zn content towards total divergence. Cluster I and Cluster III could be considered for excellent antioxidant and nutrients and high foliage yield. Cluster II for nutrients, cluster IV for antioxidant and nutrients and cluster V for antioxidant, nutrients, and foliage yield. Based on inter-cluster distance, intra-cluster and scatter diagram, the genotypes AA28, AA15, AA19, AA26, AA9 and AA17 would be potential genotypes for generating transgressive segregants.