Analysis of agro-morphological diversity and oil content in Indian linseed germplasm

Abstract

One hundred and eleven accessions of linseed germplasm belonging to 32 districts of six states (Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra) in India were characterized for five qualitative and six quantitative traits. Significant variability was observed in the agro- morphological and qualitative traits. The Shannon diversity index varied from 0.23-0.70 and the phenotypic coefficient of variation ranged from 6.0% to 37.1%. IC 345425, an accession from Surgaon, Chandrapur, Maharashtra, was identified as promising for its high oil content (41.5%). The Pearson correlation matrix generated for the quantitative traits indicated that positive and high correlation was observed among days to 50% flowering and days to 80% maturity (0.9; P value <0.0001), plant height and seed weight (0.7; P value <0.0001), seed weight and oil% (0.6; P value <0.0001), seed weight and number of capsules per plant (0.5; P value <0.0001). Two major clusters were formed when the characterization data was subjected to Ward's minimum variance method. DIVA-GIS approaches for the analysis of the diversity in linseed germplasm were mapped for quantitative traits such as plant height, number of capsules per plant and seed oil content.