Genetic Divergence in Micronutrient Rich wheat– A Tool to Identify Diverse Parents

Aim: To Study genetic divergence in the micronutrient rich lines to identify diverse parents for hybridization.

Study Design: Randomized Complete Block Design

Place and Duration of Study: Division of Plant Breeding and Genetics, She-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu during rabi 2019-20.

Methodology: Nature and magnitude of variability in forty-nine zinc/iron rich genotypes along with three commercial varieties with stripe rust resistance could be grouped into five clusters using D2–Statistics.

Results: Fifty-two lines were placed in five cluster with most of the micronutrient rich lines lying in cluster I except for HP-44 , HP 49 , HP 14 and HP 13 placed in cluster II, III, IV and V respectively indicating them to be divergent than the rest. Further HD 3086, RSP 561 and JAUW-683 were in the cluster I indicating them to be less diverse with respect to traits under study. The traits that contributed mast towards divergence were grain yield per plant(25) percent followed by number of tillers per plant (20.7) percent and 1000 grain weight (14) percent zinc and iron add little contribution of 8 and 7 percent respectively to the total divergence hence could not classified the genotypes into different cluster based on inter cluster distance Cluster III and Cluster V had the greatest inter-cluster distance, followed by Cluster III and Cluster IV, Cluster II and Cluster V, and Cluster II and Cluster IV.

Conclusion: Developing wheat varieties with enhanced content of iron and zinc is one of the most sought objectives in a present world to alleviate micronutrient malnutrition. Modern wheat varieties exhibit little diversity in zinc and iron levels in the grain, but large-scale screening has found significant amounts of zinc and iron in wild relatives and progenitors of cultivated wheat.