Multivariate Analysis of Genetic Divergence and Character Association in Ethiopian Kale Accession (Brassica Carinata A.)

Abstract

Ethiopian kale is an important crop of Ethiopian origin and it has been grown in Ethiopia since antiquity both as a vegetable and oilseed crop. Cultivation of Ethiopian kale, as a vegetable, requires genetic improvement which relies on its genetic diversity and interrelationships among traits. The present study had objective, to assess the association among seed-yield and yield related traits. The experiment was carried out using 7x7 simple lattice design at Debre-zeit agricultural research center during the 2017/18 main cropping season. In this study, genetic diversity in 49 Ethiopian kale accessions, collected from the diverse agro-ecological area of the country were assessed using the techniques of cluster and principal component analyses based on 14 traits. Multivariate analyses of genetic divergence among accessions have resulted in the formation of three clusters, and have shown the presence variability for further selection and breeding. The largest and smallest numbers of accessions were found under cluster one and three respectively. The accessions subjected to divergence study fall in to different cluster showing the existence of significant difference (p<0.01) between all pairs of clusters. The maximum inter-cluster distance was found between cluster one and three which are better to use as a parent, while the minimum distance was showed between two and one. 75.8% of the variation was contributed by the fourth principal components among the accessions using agro-morphological traits. PC1 had 33.94% of total variation in agro morphological traits; PC2 depicted 21.45% of total morphological variability, while PC3 and PC4 accounted for 12.11% and 8.3 respectively, for the total variation.