Genetic Diversity of Bread Wheat Genotypes and Relationship between Agronomic Traits using Multivariate Analysis

Germplasm improvement and genetic diversity are fundamental solutions for reliable and sustainable production of field crops. To study the genetic diversity and the relationship between agronomic traits, 800 winter bread wheat genotypes along with five varieties of Falat, Sardari, Roshan, Zare, and Pishgam in the farm of the Faculty of Agriculture of Vali –e- Asr University in Rafsanjan were evaluated in an augmented design. Cluster analysis was conducted by two methods k-Means and fuzzy clustering. The studied genotypes were divided into 4 groups in both methods. The traits were including biological weight, seed yield, harvest index, height, spike length, and seed weight per spike were respectively the most important in grouping the genotypes in both clustering methods. In the regression analysis, the traits of days to flowering and days to ripening, spike length, biological yield, number of seeds and weight of seeds per spike, 1000 kernel weight, and harvest index accounted for 85.89% of the total variation in grain yield. The traits of Biological yield and harvest index had the most direct and positive effect on grain yield. Based on the results, some genotypes were superior to control cultivars based on a number of traits, especially seed yield and its components. These genotypes can be considered as candidate genotypes in breeding programs in Rafsanjan climate conditions.