Genetic analysis in sunflower germplasm across the four states falling under the semi-arid environments of India.

The present research focuses on the identification of stable trait specific genetic resources across the five semiarid environments located in the four states of India. The study illustrated the existence of a wide range of variations for most of the characters among the sunflower genotypes, which provides opportunities for genetic gain through selection or hybridization. Genotype x Environment (G x E) interaction was significant for all traits except for days to 50 % flowering, maturity days and 100-seed weight which means different genotypes responded differently to environments for the rest of the traits. Based on per se performance across the locations GMU 296 and HOHAL 30 can be considered as high yielding and high oil content accessions. Based on biplot, stability and per se performance genotypes GMU 806, GMU 635, GMU 296, GMU 802 and check DRSF113, can be considered as a medium to high yielding with medium oil content and medium maturity genotypes across the environments and can be considered as an ideal genotype across semi-arid environments. Character association indicated that among the seven traits, seed yield per plant had a significant negative association with oil content. The traits 50 % flowering and maturity days fall under one group and showed the more or less similar type of pattern in the expression of the traits by heat map approach. Based on diversity analysis identified genotypes from the second cluster can be utilized for the development of high yielding, medium oil content and medium duration diverse gene pool in sunflower for semi-arid environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]