Authors:

Abstract

Genetically-variable sugarcane progenies are generated through the crossing of parents. The commercial varieties with high cane and sugar yields, moderate fibre content, pest and disease resistance, and high adaptability to growing conditions are selected from these progenies. This study was conducted to identify parents with high combining ability of most of these characteristics into the progenies for efficient variety selection in sugarcane breeding. In this regard, 508 accessions from the Saccharum germplasm were assessed for their commercial attributes. Data on cane and sugar yield components were collected from each accession. Phenotypic correlations were estimated for each pair of characteristics. Principal component analysis was performed, and subsequently, cluster analysis was done based on the first three principal components. Phenotypic relationships revealed that the plot yield of an accession is mainly determined by the number of stalks and stalk length, suggesting that accessions with a higher number of stalks and longer stalk lengths can be taken as promising parents for breeding for cane yield. The strong positive relationships of brix to other components of sugar content proved that the parents with high sugar can be classified by hand brix. The selected PCs clustered the accessions into four groups. Group 1 comprises the parental core collection for generating progenies with moderate cane yield, high sugar yield, and moderate fibre content, whilst accessions in group 3 can be used for breeding energy cane. The accessions SLC 91 46 and S 2003-US-247 were identified as the most promising parents in the simultaneous improvement of cane and sugar yields with moderate fibre content.

Keywords: Hierarchical clustering, Phenotypic correlations, Principal components