GENETIC DIVERGENCE ON THE BASIS OF PRINCIPAL COMPONENT, CORRELATION AND CLUSTER ANALYSIS OF YIELD AND QUALITY TRAITS IN COTTON CULTIVARS

The present research work was conducted to obtain genetic divergence regarding fiber and yield associated traits among 12 different Chinese cotton varieties (cultivars) of upland cotton. The phonological studies were accomplished via carrying out correlation, and cluster analyses. The outcomes from current study demonstrated strong positive correlation (0.69) between number of bolls per plant and cottonseed yield as well as positive significant correlation between lint index (0.94) and staple length (0.70); however, fiber strength exhibited significant negative correlation (0.65) with cottonseed yield per plant. Heat map of experimented genotypes depicted seven clusters are I, II, III, IV, V, VI and VII keeping cluster-III at extreme for highest individual genotypic scores concerning different fiber and yield associated traits. Principal component analysis revealed total variability of 74.38% among genotypes contributed by PC-1 (52.86%) and PC-2 (21.52%). Yield related traits i.e., number of bolls per plant, cotton seed yield and staple length contributed positive significant component loadings for the first two PCs. Cluster analysis (k) grouped studied cultivars into three discrete clusters. Cluster-2 and cluster-3 got optimum values for cottonseed yield, number of bolls per plant, seed index and staple length. The information was fetched together after applying different statistical tools in order to make the outcomes of genetic diversity fruitful for developing an improved cotton breeding program.