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Linseed is an important oilseed and fibre crop predominantly grown in India. The aim of the present research was to evaluate genetic diversity and patterns of relationships among the 58 genotypes through 10 morphological traits and 12 polymorphic microsatellite (SSR) markers. Euclidean analysis of agro-morphological traits grouped the 58 genotypes into four clusters of which cluster I was the largest with 20 accessions while clusters II and IV were most genetically diverse due to maximum inter-cluster distance. Principal component analysis revealed three traits accounted for more than 86% of the total variation. A total of 41 alleles were amplified with 12 SSRs having an average of 5.71 alleles per primer locus. The Polymorphic Information Content (PIC) varied between 0.18 to 0.78. Based on Jaccard's similarity coefficient, the genetic distance varied from 0.07 to 0.89 with an average of 0.54±0.10. The genotypes RKY-14, KL-213, LC-185 and Kartika were found to be the most divergent among all the genotypes studied on the basis of genetic distance. The most diverse genotypes identified in this study can be used in breeding programs to broaden the genetic base of the linseed germplasm.

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Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) is an important dual-purpose crop in drought and famine prone areas as it is used as human food as well as livestock feed and fodder. However, the variation for forage quality traits of grass pea remains largely unexplored. This study aimed to characterize the genetic diversity of grass pea collections from Africa, Asia, and Europe, and identify genotypes for superior agronomic and forage nutritional quality traits. The principal component analysis revealed that the first three principal components from nutritional quality parameters viz., NDF, ADF, cellulose, lignin and ash percent, and from agronomic traits viz., plant height, nodes per plant, leaf area, green and dry biomass accounted for the majority of the total variation. In addition, a total of 59 polymorphic alleles were detected at 11 SSR loci with an average of 5.36 alleles per locus and the polymorphic information content ranged from 0.49 to 0.76. Three accessions (IF1872, IF2177 and IF2156) with higher biomass than the check and four accessions (IF1327, IF1312, IL-10-76 and IF1307) with excellent nutritive value in both green forage as well as straw were identified. The present study revealed high genetic variation for biomass and nutritional quality traits in grass pea collections that could be useful for development of high-yielding, nutritionally rich, and dual-purpose varieties.

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The Himalayan foothills region of India is rich in the genetic diversity of okra, which is yet to be explored for its genetic divergence. To envisage the genetic diversity of this un-explored varietal collection, the genetic divergence among 25 genotypes of okra was estimated using Mahalanobis D² statistic. The indigenous and exotic lines were grouped into 6 clusters using Tocher’s methods. Results revealed that a higher number of genotypes were recorded under cluster I (19) and cluster IV (2), while cluster II, III, V and VI were mono-genotypic. A higher intra- cluster distance was observed between clusters I (13.42) and IV (7.47), whereas, a higher inter-cluster distance was found between clusters III and VI (111.03). The traits viz, Yellow Vein Mosaic Virus (YVMV) incidence (44.67 %) were contributing the highest towards the total genetic divergence. The present study revealed the detailed genetic divergence for different yield-attributing traits in okra. This study presents a strong basis for the selection and evolving of better recombinants for hybridization and quality improvement programme. This research bear utility in the form of germplasm conservation and crop improvement for selected indigenous/exotic genotypes grown in Himalayan foothills.