Genetic Diversity Analysis in Genetically Modified Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) Genotypes

Abstract

The present research was aimed to analysis genetic diversity in a set of 26 genetically modified cotton genotypes. The results exhibited that there was significant differences (P ≤0.01) among the genotypes for all the studied traits, showing the substantial genetic variability among the genotypes for further evaluation. With respects to mean performance, variety BH-180 and IR-3701 displayed superior performance in terms of bolls plant-1 , seed cotton yield plant-1 , micronaire value, GOT%, staple length and lint index, offering that these genotypes can further be exploited for various breeding programs to improve upland cotton genotypes. High heritability values (h2 b.s.) were shown by most of the studied traits, indicating that the variation found was primarily under genetic control and was less affected by environmental factors, referring the influence of additive gene action for these traits. Thus, the progress of such traits can be done via direct phenotypic selection. In cluster analysis, all genotypes divided into seven small clusters, cluster one consisted of nine genotypes which were characterized as high yielding genotypes, suggesting that these genotypes could be utilized for future breeding programs in order to get better yielding varieties. First three principal components accounted 99.00% variability, which is considered very high and could be used in upcoming breeding programs of cotton.