Genetic Divergence in Relation to Fatty Acids in Brassica Species

Genetic divergence in 105 genotypes of toria Germ plasm was evaluated by using Mahalanobis's D2 test. Oil content, fatty acid composition and glucosinolate content was estimated and data obtained for various characters were subjected to statistical analysis i.e. analysis of variance, heritability, genetic advance, correlation and measurement of genetic divergence. Analysis of variance indicated that all the genotypes were significantly different from each other for all the characters. The ranking of different characters for different kinds of coefficient of variation was same for both genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variations. Stearic acid showed highest genotypic coefficient of variation. Heritability were relatively very high for all the characters. Genetic advance varied from 0.90% for stearic acid to 51.31% for glucosinolate content. Correlation studies revealed that the negative correlation of palmitic acid, oleic acid and linoleic acid with erucic acid is of great significance in the breeding varieties with very low erucic acid content thus improving the nutritional quality of oil. 105 genotypes, included in the study were grouped into 8 clusters. Genotypes occupying one cluster may also have little diversity and selection of parents within the cluster may also be useful. This information on relationship within and between genotypes of the same species will be valuable for organizing germplasm and selecting parents for breeding purposes. Keywords— Brassica Campestris; Genetic Divergence; Variability; Heritability _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________