Studies on genetic divergence in onion advance lines

Abstract

India is one of the major onion growing and exporting ranking second in production and third in export in the world. It is one of the important vegetable and spices consumed by almost all the sections of the societies throughout the year. Though many factors play significant role in onion production, genotypes can be considered as one of the basic factors. Diversity arises either due to geographical separation or due to genetic barriers to cross ability and its plays an important role in plant breeding because hybrids between lines with diverse origin generally display a greater heterosis than those between closely related strains. Reports on genetic diversity among onion are limited. The knowledge of genetic diversity, its nature and degree of variability would be helpful for selecting desirable parents for available germplasm and cultivars for a successful breeding programme to generate new variability and desirable recombinants.