Genetic divergence analysis for bacterial leaf blight (BLB) disease resistance in rice (Oryza sativa L.)

The present study was undertaken to assess the genetic variability existed among 114 rice germplasm for BLB resistance. In field level screening, the genotypes PY5 and Kadaikannan showed immune against rice BLB. The rice germplasm were subjected to 𝐷2 analysis for nine quantitative traits viz., plant height, number of productive tillers per plant, days to fifty per cent flowering, panicle length, number of grains per panicle, thousand grain weight, single plant yield, grain length and grain breadth. On the basis of Mahalanobis 𝐷2 statistics, the 114 genotypes were grouped into eighteen clusters.