Genetic diversity and population structure of Heteropogon contortus L. germplasm collected from diverse agro-climatic region and development of a core germplasm set.

Abstract

Heteropogon contortus, an important constituent of major grass covers of India and many countries in Africa, Asia, Australia and America, is important for pasture and grassland productivity. Hence genetic improvement of the grass needs attention. Genetic variability study and core subset development was carried out by evaluating 235 accessions of this perennial grass collected from different agro-ecological zones of India. The study based on 15 metric and 15 non-metric traits along with eight nutritive parameters indicates that considerable genetic variability exists among the germplasm and selection could result in identification of suitable types for target environments. The clustering and sub-clustering was done to select 35 accessions to form core subset. The statistical analysis indicates that the core subset has captured almost all the variability present in the entire germplasm. The study will help the researchers to concentrate study on this core subset for future genetic improvement programme.