Assessment of genetic diversity in cotton genotypes for earliness, clcuv disease tolerance,fiber quality and yield related traits

Cotton crop in Pakistan has faced many threats including CLCuV disease, late sowing risks, low yield and poor quality of fiber. Thirty three genotypes from F4 were assessed for earliness, CLCuV disease tolerance, high yield and good quality of fiber at Cotton Research Station, AARI, Faisalabad, Pakistan during 2018-19. For evaluation of these genotypes Principal Component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis were performed to select suitable genetic material to utilize them in further breeding programs. The Principal Component Analysis showed first six Principal components having eigen value >1 showing 81. 6 % of total variation with bolls count, weight of bolls, sympodial branches count and yield as being most related to PC I. Cluster Analysis divided 33 genotypes into four divergent groups. Cluster 2 showed least value for CLCuV %, Cluster 3 showed good values for bolls characters, fiber quality and yield and cluster 4 showed good values for earliness. The genotypes in cluster 2, 3 and 4 can be combined to get desired traits combination. The biplot and the dendrogram highlighted significant variation in studied cotton cultivars for different traits and it is assessed that the variation in these genotypes can be exploited to develop early, CLCuV disease resistant lines along with the increased seed cotton yield having good fiber quality.