Genetic Variability, Principle Components and Cluster Analysis of Twenty-eight Egyptian Wheat Genotypes

Abdelghany, Mohamed; Makhmer, Khamis; Zayed, Ehab; Salama, Yossry; Amer, Khaled

doi:10.21608/sjas.2023.179573.1272

Genetic Variability, Principle Components and Cluster Analysis of Twenty-eight Egyptian Wheat Genotypes

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Crop Science Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Damanhour University, Damanhour 22516, Egypt

² Genetic Resources Research Department (GRRD), Field Crops Research Institute (FCRI), Agricultural Research Center (ARC), Giza 12619, Egypt.

10.21608/sjas.2023.179573.1272

Abstract

Wheat is Egypt's main cereal crop and the foundation of its food security. During two consecutive seasons (2018/2019 and 2019/2020), twenty-eight wheat landraces were cultivated on the farm of Bahteem Research Station, Giza, Egypt, to evaluate their genetic variability and to determine genetic relationships among these evaluated genotypes using cluster analysis and principal components analysis. Across the two seasons, the genotypes investigated differed significantly (P≤0.0.01) for all agronomic characteristics and high assessments of the broad sense heritability were noted for all traits. The data were classified into three major components using principal components analysis. The eigenvalues of the first two were greater than one. These three major components described 76.21% of the total variability in wheat genotypes, while the other five components described only 23.79% of the variation. The cluster analysis divided all genotypes into six groups. The first cluster had three genotypes, accounting for 10.71% of all genotypes. Six genotypes, accounting for 21.43% of all genotypes, were categorized as belonging to the second cluster. The third cluster was also assigned six genotypes, accounting for 21.43 percent of all genotypes. Only one genotype (G5), accounting for 3.57 percent of all genotypes, was identified as belonging to the fourth cluster. Seven genotypes were found in the fifth cluster whereas five genotypes were found in the sixth cluster. Clusters II and IV had the greatest distance between them, followed by Clusters III and IV. Crossing between these clusters may lead to more efficient and superior recombinant wheat improvement programs.

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