Genetic diversity for morpho-physiological traits and associations between the geographic origins of the germplasm

Norbert Dewar, and Habtamu Mat

Abstract

Keeping in view the lack of information on genetic diversity in Ethiopian, 144 random samples of fenugreek accessions with standard check were used to determine the extent and pattern of genetic diversity and associations with their geographic origins. The field experiment was conducted at Adadi and Ambo during 2006 and 2007 cropping seasons. Treatments were arranged in a 12 ×12 simple lattice design and data were subjected to the ANOVA performed by the SAS software. The mean squares of the accessions were highly significant for most of the characters, implying that a wide range of variability has been obtained for the traits studied. The GCV ranged from 1.65 to 68.95%, while the PCV from 3.30 to 158.06%. The estimated broad sense heritability ranged from 2.92 to 82.02%. The first four PC accounted for more than 88% of the total variation. The 144 germplasm materials were grouped into six clusters based on Mahalanobis’ D 2 statistic. It was asserted that geographic diversity should not necessarily be used as an index of genetic diversity and parental selection but should be based on systematic study of genetic diversity in a specific population.