Ascertaining the morpho-molecular diversity in buckwheat germplasm and identification of high yielding, stable...

Buckwheat, an underutilized crop, is a multipurpose crop with great potential and high nutritive values. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the genetic variability of 102 génotypes of common (Fagopyrum esculentum) and tartaty buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum) based on agro-morphological traits and microsatellite markers with the identification of high-yielding and stable genotypes with superior nutritive values. The accessions varied significantly in terms of morpho-molecular and biochemical traits. Key traits with agronomic relevance namely, number of seeds per plant, hundred seed weight, and petiole length were identified to exhibit positive correlations with direct positive path coefficient on yield per plant. Both the agro-morphological and SSR based clustering grouped the genotypes into five major clusters. The SSR polymorphism analysis, gene diversity and heterozygosity revealed substantial genetic diversity among the populations. The first three principal components explained about 61.05% of the total variance indicating trait under study contribute maximum of the variations. The model-based structure and PCoA analysis differentiated the population into two sub-populations. The genetic variation, as shown by analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) indicates higher variability within population than among population in the analyzed set. Further, the AMMI stability analysis identified five promising accessions. Based on the multi-trait stability index, combining all the morphological traits together, IC37275, IC26592, IC13139, IC36919, and IC26606 were identified with a selection efficiency of 20%. Overall, the study revealed deep insights into genetic diversity, population differentiation vis-à-vis the identification of high yielding and stable accessions with higher nutritive values. Taking into account the nutritional values with yield and stability, the following four accessions namely IC16550, IC26586, Shimla B-1, and Local teethey were identified as most promising and thus exhibit a great potential to be utilized in buckwheat improvement programs.