Revealing genetic variation and clustering pattern in upland rice using morpho-economic traits

A set of 36 upland genotypes comprising 24 popular short duration ruling rice varieties and 12 mutants derived from cv. Mandakini and Zhu 11–26 was characterized for eight morpho-economic traits including seed yield. The data were analysed using SAS software programme for estimation of Euclidian genetic distance and grouping of test genotypes. Cluster composition was set up for six clusters and the corresponding cluster means for eight morpho-economic traits were derived from mean performance of the test genotypes. Cluster I included all the four top yielding (3260-36kg/ha) test genotypes comprising one mutant of cv. Zhu 11–26 (ORT 39) and three mutants of cv. Mandakini (ORT 35, ORT 11, ORT 30). Besides, it was identified to be the most divergent cluster with high intra-cluster heterogeneity. Cluster II contained almost all popularly known drought tolerant cultivars e.g., Zhu 11–26, Saria, Vandana, Pathara and Vanaprava. Cluster V was highly distant from above clusters and included both the promising widely adaptable standard check varieties e.g., Khandagiri and Subhadra with average productivity more than 3000kg/ha. The above highly divergent upland genotypes with distinct morphological diversity may be combined in hybridization programme for recovery of desirable transgressive segregants that can serve as potential parents to facilitate high resolution QTL mapping and validate candidate genes responsible for quantitative characters.