Vol. 10, Issue 12 (2021)

Author(s):
Kartheka T, K Rajamani, M Ganga and N Manikanda Boopathi

Abstract:
Jasminum sambac is one of the most important traditional flower crops of India especially Tamil Nadu. Understanding the genetic variability among the different genotypes of Jasminum sambac helps in its exploitation in breeding programmes. A total of 34 genotypes comprising of traditional landraces collected from all over Tamil Nadu were evaluated for 40 qualitative traits according to the DUS descriptors specified for Jasminum sambac (Kannan M. et al., Plant Variety Journal, 2016). In order to reduce the dimensionality of the data, examine the variation and the relative contribution of the traits for the total variability, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method was adopted. PCA test in 34 genotypes for all the 40 characters resulted in fifteen Principal Components (PCs) with an eigenvalue more than one accounted for 97.21 per cent of the total variability and revealed that the traits leaf margin undulation, flower bud shape, flower shape, shape of corolla lobe, flower petal tip, leaf blade undulations, flower bud length and root suckers exhibited maximum variation. Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering and PCA results showed that the genotypes Acc. Js- 11, Acc. Js- 12, Acc. Js- 13, Acc. Js- 14, Acc. Js- 20, Acc. Js- 25, Acc. Js- 27 and Acc. Js- 32 were found to be the most diverse genotypes.