Genetic divergence among Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) genotypes grown under rainfed conditions

Sorghum considered being one of the important cereal crops of the world. Genetic diversity study is one of the essential components in any efficient breeding program. One hundred and twenty-four diverse genotypes were used in the current study. Principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis were used in this study as major multivariate analyses. From the results, it was found that considerable genetic diversity exists in these studied accessions. The principal component analysis found that PC-I explained 19.1% variability, followed by PC-II that explained 13.7% variability, PC-III, and PC-IV scores 11.6 and 10.9% variation, respectively. Total variation was observed due to variation in grain weight, flag leaf area, and other contributing traits. Cluster-I contained 64 genotypes, cluster-II contained 9 genotypes, cluster-III (15 genotypes), cluster-IV (14 genotypes), cluster-V (3 genotypes), and cluster-VI contained 19 genotypes. The distribution pattern of different accessions into six different clusters indicated that considerable genetic variability existed among these accessions. The genotypes can be selected from different clusters and used in the breeding program to achieve new desirable combinations and further use these combinations to release as a new variety.