Published 2018-06-28
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Abstract
ABSTRACT Developing of drought tolerant potato varieties is one of the research priorities in Ethiopia and to achieve this objective, 100 drought tolerant potato genotypes were introduced to the country. Estimation of genetic diversity is a key in the process of variety development. This research was conducted at Simada research site of Adet Agricultural Research Center in 2016 main rain season to determine genetic diversity among 105 potato genotypes towards of which five were checks. The experiment was carried out in Augmented design and data were generated for 20 traits. Mean squares of the analysis of variance showed highly significant (P <0.01) differences among genotypes for all traits except for plant height, small and medium size tubers percentage this indicating 17 traits used for further genetic diversity analysis. Genetic distances of genotypes measure by Euclidean distance was ranged from 1.11 to 12.60 and Unweighted Pair-group Method with Arithmetic means (UPGMA) formed dendrogram in which grouped potato genotypes in to 20 distinct clusters. The genotypes grouped in different clusters characterized by one or more desirable traits resulted wide range of intra and inter clusters average genetic distances suggested the higher chance of developing varieties through direct selection or crossing of genotypes to produce heterotic hybrids. Keywords: Augment design, Drought, Euclidean distance and Genetic diversity.