evaluation of genetic variation of durum wheat genotypes using multivariate analyses

this study was conducted to evaluate genetic diversity of durum wheat cultivars using multivariate analyses on agronomic and morphological traits. thirty genotypes were planted in a randomized complete block design with three replications in 2003. agronomic and morphological characteristics including days to flowering, days to pollination, days to maturity, plant height, spike length, grain weight per spike, number of grain per spike, number of spike per m2, grain yield, biological yield, 1000 grain weight, kernel weight and harvest index were assessed in the studied genotypes. multivariate statistical analyses including principal components analysis (pca), principal co-ordinate analysis (pco) and cluster analysis were used to assess the pattern of morphological variations and to group the genotypes. the obtained results from grouping 30 cultivars of durum wheat with 3 studied methods indicated that in the most cases the applied methods produced almost similar grouping among cultivars. cluster analysis, however, used both genetic variations between genotypes and traits, and hence is considered as a superior method for grouping the genotypes.