Cluster, Divergence and Principal Component Analysis of Niger seed (Guizotia abyssinica (L. f.) Cass.) Genotypes

Niger seed is among the most important oilseeds in Ethiopian Agriculture. The genetic divergence of niger seed genotypes collected from diverse ecologies of Ethiopia were evaluated using simple lattice design based on 12 quantitative traits to assess the genetic diversity of Ethiopian niger seed genotypes using multivariate techniques. Cluster analysis grouped the genotypes into five distinct groups. Each group showed admixtures of accessions rather than traceable patterns of geographical origin. The highest inter cluster distance was observed between cluster IV and V (D2=94.75) and the lowest divergence was observed between cluster II and IV (D2=19.80). The first five Principle components explained 81 % of the total variation. The first component strongly influenced by days to flowering (-0.438) and number of head (0.377). Component two highly influenced by yield per plot (-0.542) and oil content (-0.532). Number of seed per head (0.623), number of primary branch and days to maturity (0.651) strongly influence component three, four and five respectively. Therefore, the study indicates the existence of genetic divergence among the tested genotypes and the possibility to identify divergent material with desirable agronomic features for the development of new superior niger seed cultivars through hybridization and selection by crossing accessions from different clusters.