Comparative Study of Morpho-Physiological Diversity in Interspecific Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Genetic diversity in wheat is crucial to meet the diversified goals of plant breeding mainly breeding for increasing yield, desirable quality and disease. The aim of research was to quantify the total amount of variability existing in the genetic material for morpho-physiological traits. The proposed study was conducted in the experimental area and laboratory of Plant Breeding and Molecular Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Poonch Rawalakot. Sixty three wheat accessions of three species (aestivum, durum, and sphearococum) including one check variety BARS-2009 were used. Diversity was found significant among different accessions by means of cluster analysis and individual contribution of each trait by means of principal component analysis. Most diversity was noted for traits like plant height, number of tillers per plant, specific flag leaf weight, specific flag leaf area and peduncle length etc. Taken as whole it was revealed that the accessions 13011, 13005, 12976, 12983, 19028, 12982, Land race -LR-30, LR-42, 12978, LR-36, LR-3, 13010, 13015, LR-33, 12979, LR-7, 12996, 12984, 13002, 13004, 13006, LR-13, LR-38, 12977, 12999, 13003, LR-43, 13014, LR-16 and 12980 were outliers and traced to be superior as they contributed maximum divergence for morpho-physiological traits. Ample diversity was found in all three species accessions, which could be exploited in future studies for wheat improvement. Keywords: Accession, Diversity, Outliers, Significant, Wheat.