Comparison of genetic diversity of Iranian and foreign safflower genotypes using multivariate statistical methods

The present study was conducted to compare the genetic diversity of 158 foreign and iranian safflower genotypes with six Iranian safflower cultivars.

The experiment was carried out in the Augment design with three replications during the 2017-17 at Zahak Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Station in Zabol county.

In principal components analysis (PCA), the first component was named grain yield and dry matter and the second component was named phenology. Based on the results of biplot, genotypes were classified into four groups. The first group includes late matutity and tall genotypes, the second group includes genotypes with high grain yield and harvest index (HI), the third group includes late matutity genotypes with low grain yield and the fourth group includes early matutity genotypes with lowest grain yield and HI. Genotype No. 100 with unknown origin (6044 kg.ha-1) had the highest grain yield and genotypes No. 153 (Mexico), 169 (Mexico), 134 (North Korea), 122 (Poland), 124 (unknown), 130 (unknown) and 131 (North Korea) had high grain yield. The orthogonal comparison of 20 Iranian genotypes versus 138 foreign genotypes showed that no difference was observed for plant height, but in terms of grain yield, biomass and harvest index, foreign genotypes were significantly higher than Iranian genotypes.

Genetic diversity by different statistical analyzes was well able to differentiate safflower genotypes and can be used from grouping obtained from statistical methods for select appropriate parents genotypes in safflower breeding programs.