Multivariate analysis for various quantitative traits in wheat advanced lines

Genetic diversity play key role in the germplasm improvement which is directly correlated with the crop production. Various statistical techniques have been used to study diversity among different genotypes. Among these techniques multivariate is most frequently used one for the genetic association of genotypes. In the present study a total of 64 advance lines included one check cultivar were evaluated under the field conditions of Cereal Crop Research Institute, Pirsabaq Nowshera, Pakistan during September 2017. Data were recorded for nine different parameters. Multivariate analysis divided the total 64 genotypes into four groups. The first five PCs with Eigen values > 1 contributed 86.95% of the variability amongst genotypes. Characters with maximum values in PC1 were Spikelets spike^-1 (SPPS) (0.732), spike length (SPL) (0.722) and biological yield (BY) (0.607), PC2 comprised of 100-grain weight (TGW) (0.605), grain yield (GY) (0.482) while days to heading (DH) (0.393), for PC3 major contributors were BY (0.550) and number of tillers meter square^-1 (NTPS) (0.289), the contribution of PC4 were flag leaf area (FLA) (0.716) and SPL (0.298) and the maximum values for various traits in PC5 were SPPS (0.732), SPL (0.722) and BY (0.607). From the findings of present study best performing lines can be directly recommended for general cultivation or to be used in future breeding programs.