Study of Genetic Variation in Safflower Germplasm for Early Maturity and Grain Yield using Multivariate Statistical Methods

In this study, the genetic diversity of 122 safflower genotypes from the institute of plant genetics and crop plant research (IPK) and International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) were evaluated and their agronomic characteristics were compared with five Iranian Safflower cultivars (Sofe, Goldasht, Golmehr, Padide and Parnian). The study was carried out in the Augment design during 2016-2017 at the research field of seed and plant improvement institute in Karaj. The results indicated high genetic variation in the germplasm. Among safflower genotypes, plant height had the most variation. Cluster analysis was divided genotypes into four main clusters. The first cluster included early and spiny genotypes, while the second cluster contained genotypes with high yield potential and high plant height, third cluster consisting of spiny dwarf genotypes and the fourth cluster including semi-dwarf, spiny, relatively early flowering and relatively low grain yield. Based on the principal component analysis, the studied traits were reduced to two components and cumulative variance was 56.7% for two first components. Accordingly, the first and second components were flowering time and yield, respectively. Based on the results of biplot, genotypes were classified into four groups. Genotypes in the first and second groups had the higher grain yield than others. The highest grain yield was observed in NSZK "A" genotype (400 g.m-2). Iranian commercial cultivar including Sofe, Parnian and Golmehr and Iranian genotype No. 49 showed the maximum plant height. The lowest number of days to flowering was observed in genotype No. 91 (German). Tall genotypes had more grain yield than dwarf. Most spiny genotypes were early flowering than spineless genotypes. Overall, the results showed that there is a considerable genetic variation in safflower germplasm that can be used to select parents and desirable genotypes in safflower breeding programs.