Phenotypic characterization and diversity estimates in sugarcane (Saccharum spp. hybrid) germplasm

ABSTRACT

The aim of the study was to identify genotypes with superior phenotypic performance, level and pattern of phenotypic diversity, and major contributing traits to the diversity of the test materials. Sixteen phenotypic traits of 81 sugarcane genotypes were analyzed using univariate and multivariate statistical methods. The genotypes were planted across two locations using a partially balanced lattice design with two replications. The study depicted the existence of substantial variation among the test materials in all the studied traits. The selected top 5% clones for cane yield, sucrose content and sugar yield were as follows: B694–11, B658–10, B707–1 and B572–1; B552–11, B498–9, B552–21 and B564–1; and B552–11, B549–10, B658–10 and B572–1, respectively. Sugarcane genotypes of clusters V and VII were the most divergent as demonstrated by their greatest intercluster distances, while sugar yield, cane yield and recoverable sucrose percent were the major contributors for the diversity of the test materials as revealed by PCA based on all of the studied traits. This suggests that the most divergent genotypes could be used as donor for hybridization, while those with greater mean values of the major contributing traits could be targeted for selection breeding.

KEYWORDS:

• Sugarcane genotypes
• selection
• analysis of variance
• principal component analysis
• cluster analysis

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the institutional collaboration program between the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and Hawassa University for providing financial support, and the Metahara and Tana-Beles Research Centres for their material and technical support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The dataset collected and analyzed on the course of the present study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Supplementary Material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/03650340.2024.2344484

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Institutional Collaboration Program between the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and Hawassa University, Phase-IV, ETH-13/0027, which was funded by the government of Norway.