Genetic diversity analysis in fennel

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to study the genetic divergence of 13 fennel varieties (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) using Mahalanobsis D2 statistics. Clustering pattern indicates that varieties from the same source were distributed over different clusters. This indicated that the geographic and genetic diversity are not necessarily related, therefore the selection of varieties for hybridization should be based on genetic diversity. Estimates of intracluster distance ranged from 1.00-6.09. It was maximum in cluster VI and minimum in cluster II, IV and VI. Tocher’s method of hierarchical cluster analysis was applied to group the varieties. The maximum inter-cluster distance between cluster III and I was 4.15 and 14.42, respectively. The varieties falling in cluster I were Hisar Swarup, GF-2, RF-101, RF-178 and RF-143, in cluster II, Rajendra Saurabha, in cluster III, Azad Saunf-1, GF-1, GF-11 and CO-1, in cluster IV, AF-1, in cluster V, RF-125 and in Cluster VI, Pant Madurika. The study suggests that clusters I & II were quite divergent from rest of the clusters and also from one another. Among the 14 characters studied for genetic divergence, 80% flowering contributed the maximum accounting for 33.33% of total divergence, followed by angle of primary branch 32.05%.