Evaluation of Genetic Diversity and Classification of Sunflower Recombinant Inbred Lines Using Agro-Morphological Traits

The first step of breeding programs and crops improvement are assess the genetic diversity and depends on germplasm availability and efficient utilization of their. This study was conducted to evaluate genetic variations among 70 sunflower recombinant inbred lines (RILs) obtained from the cross between PAC2  RHA266 based on the morphological traits by using a rectangular lattice design with two replications. After flowering stage، some morphological traits such as leaf numbers، leaf length، petiole length، plant height، leaf width، stem diameter، head diameter، and seed yield per plant were measured. Analysis of variance revealed the significant difference among genotypes for the studied traits. Among traits، the highest coefficient of phenotypic variation was observed for seed yield per plant (23. 42) and the lowest one was observed for stem length (2. 45). The gteneral heritability of traits was varied from 0. 989 for petiole length to 0. 521 for a single plant yield. The highest correlation coefficient was observed between the leaf length and width (0. 923). Based on standardized morphological traits and using Ward method، the 70 studied genotypes were classified within six groups.