Genetic divergence studies in niger (Guizotia abyssinica) germplasm

Variability in 35 accessions of niger (Guizotia abyssinica) was assessed for test weight and oil quality parameters. Analysis of variance showed significant differences for test weight and oil parameters. The test weight varied from 260 to 440 mg. Total oil content ranged from 35.16% to 40.47%. The oleic acid ranged from 23.52 to 53.3% of the total fatty acids while linoleic acid ranged from 32.03 to 58.28%. High heritability (>90%) was recorded for all the oil parameters except for linoleic acid and test weight. The range of Manhattan distance coefficient values was 0.23–3.46 with a mean of 1.84. Cluster I included three accessions with highest linoleic acid (>53%), highest stearic acid (>8%), highest palmitic acid (>9%) and least oleic acid (<29%). These accessions were collected from Orissa state. Cluster II included two accessions with least oil content collected from Andhra Pradesh. The cluster III included 30 accessions and was divided into two sub-cluster i.e. IIIA; with low linoleic acid (<43%) and high oleic acid (>40%); and IIIB; with high linoleic acid (>44%) and low oleic acid (<37%). The cluster III contained the accessions representing Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Thus, on the basis of present findings it is evident that a lot of variability exists for the oil quality parameters among the niger accessions grown in different states of the country. Hybridization between accessions of different clusters will result in creation of wide spectrum of variability in subsequent segregating generations for further use in breeding programmes.