Assessment of Genetic Diversity in Bt Cotton Germplasm using Multivariate Analysis

The development of cotton production and quality is always challenging due to the narrow genetic base of present cotton germplasm, which highlights the urgent need to fully utilize the available germplasm resources to address the problems with food security. Therefore, the present study was intended to evaluate genetic diversity in fifty genotypes for yield and quality related traits at the experimental field of the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. The trial was conducted using a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The genetic diversity of 50 cotton genotypes was evaluated using multivariate analysis. The results revealed that genotypes were genetically different from each other for all characters under study. In the factor analysis, the first 5 factors from 14 factors showed eigen value >1 and contributed 72.13 % to the total variability among 50 genotypes. The first factor contributed 24.72% towards total variability which is the highest value by a single factor. The outcome of factor analysis suggested that CRS-456 (36.55%), VH-282 (6.8%), VH-235 (4.3%) and FH-113 contributed maximum to the variability in germplasm. In cluster analysis using K-mean clustering and Ward’s method, genotypes present in Cluster-II and cluster-III showed the greatest diversity for traits such as plant height, sympodial branches, bolls per plant, seeds per boll, seed cotton yield, lint index, and GOT%, genotypes from different groups could be selected for improvement in breeding for yield, quality, and other economic attributes in cotton crops. The genetic diversity, heritability, and moderate to high genetic advance suggest that the germplasm has potential for use in future breeding to produce high-yielding cotton varieties.