Diversity assessment among exotic and indigenous lines of Indian mustard for exploitation in breeding programme.

Genetic divergence using D² statistics was assessed for 13 different traits in a collection of 75 exotic and indigenous Indian mustard lines at CCS HAU Hisar. Based on genetic diversity, all were grouped into 15 clusters, of which cluster I had the maximum of 46 genotypes, followed by cluster V (8 genotypes), cluster III (7 genotypes) and cluster XII (3 genotypes). The remaining 11 clusters, i.e., cluster II, cluster IV, cluster VI, cluster VII, cluster VIII, cluster IX, cluster X, cluster XI, cluster XIII, cluster XIV and cluster XV, had only one genotype each. Cluster XII showed the maximum intra-cluster distance (15.51), while the maximum inter-cluster distance between cluster XII and cluster XV was observed (38.15). The maximum contribution to genetic divergence was recorded for the trait 1000-seed weight (33.26%) followed by days to 50 per cent flowering (26.09%), oil content (23.93%), days to maturity (26.09%) and seed yield per plant (% ). The genotypes IC-570302, IC-520747, IC-122427, EC-766480, RH 0749, EC-766040 and IC-470935, were observed promising for most of the important yield traits based upon high cluster means. The use of these genotypes was suggested in the crossing programme for further improvement in Indian mustard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]