Vol. 7, Issue 1 (2019)

Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is the major cereal crop in India on which the food security rests. Determination of the best selection criteria is the most important aim in wheat breeding programs. To achieve high yield potential in wheat, hybrid breeding is a major innovative technique. A total of 17 newly developed CMS lines and seven restorer lines, were used as a experimental material with the objective to identify diverse cross combinations and classify morphological and morpho-physiological traits. Genotypes were evaluated for twenty one traits viz., growth habit, foliage colour, time of ear emergence, ear waxiness, flag leaf length, ear shape, ear density, presence of awns, awns length, awn colour, ear colour, grain colour, grain shape, days to heading, days to maturity, plant height (cm), peduncle length (cm), number of tillers/plant, relative water content (%), canopy temperature (%) and chlorophyll content (%). Sufficient variability was exhibited by most of the phenological traits.

The genotypes were also evaluated for variability parameters for eight metric traits. Significant genotypic differences were observed for all the traits studied indicating considerable amount of variation among genotypes for each character. The estimates of genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) were moderate for peduncle length. High estimates of heritability were exhibited by most of the traits except chlorophyll content, canopy temperature and number of tillers/plant.

Based on Euclidean cluster tree analysis, genotypes were grouped in five clusters in such a way that genotypes within each cluster had higher similarity than between clusters i.e. the genotypes within the cluster had much smaller distance than the genotypes belonging to different clusters. Maximum divergence was present between clusters IV and V, followed by II and IV, clusters III and IV and cluster III and V. Cluster I was highly desirable as it consisted of genotypes which were good in respect to one or more traits and at least comparable in respect to other traits.