Genetic diversity of agronomic characteristics of 30 Sorghum sudanense germplasm

The genetic diversity of 30 Sorghum sudanense accessions were conducted with 19 agronomic traits by principal component and clustering analysis. The results showed that the different accessions exhibited various degree of diversity for these available 19 traits in which generalized heritability of thousand seed weights was the highest with 90.93%. The generalized heritability of ear level rachis length, stem diameter and other 5 traits were 40%~70% whereas that of all of the others were below 30%. Principal component analysis showed that the cumulative proportion of former 3 principal components reached 84.32% with the yield as the first component, growth period as the second component and leaf type as the third component. The 30 S. sudanense accessions were divided into 4 groups. The group Ⅰ was early matyurity with short stem, small leaves, short-loose spikes and multi-tillers. The group Ⅱ was high stem, broad leaves, short-close spikes, multi-tillers with long growing duration. The group Ⅲ was proper maturity, with medium stem, broad leaves, long-loose spikes, medium-tillers. The group Ⅳ was similar with the second group but with long-loose spike and fewer-tillers.