Elora Pervin, Firoz Mahmud, Md. Shahidur Rashid Bhuiyan, Md. Maksudul Haque
Designing breeding programs for rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) cultivars with improved seed and oil yields requires information about the genetic variability of traits. In this study, 40 rapeseed genotypes were evaluated for genetic variation and relationships between 12 agro-morphological characters. Brassica species represent a broad range of crops. This reflects the high degree of genetic diversity and related phenotypic plasticity. Significant differences among the clusters were observed. The first two components with Eigen value were greater than unity contributed a total of 42.77% variation towards the divergence. The genotypes were grouped into five clusters. Cluster V contained the maximum number of genotypes (11) and cluster III contained the lowest (4). The highest inter-cluster distance was found between cluster II and cluster V and the lowest between cluster II and cluster IV. The highest intra-cluster distance was noticed for cluster I and the lowest for cluster V. Considering diversity pattern and other agronomic performance lines Nap-0837, Nap-0733-1, Nap-2066, Nap-9901, Nap-108 and BARI-8 could be considered suitable parents. This information is useful for hybrid breeding and encouraging breeders to exchange their germplasm as to enlarge the genetic diversity of breeding accessions.