Comprehensive evaluation of the phenotypic diversity of 130 oat germplasms

A comprehensive evaluation of the phenotypic diversity of 130 oat germplasms was made using genetic diversity indexes. Principal components analysis and cluster analysis were used to investigate the genetic diversity of agronomic characteristics from different sources. The results showed high genetic diversity indices for 14 traits. The highest index value was for height (1.91), followed by root length (1.90). The largest coefficient of trait variation was the effective number of tillers (48.85%), followed by the number of tillers (45.66%). According to principal component analysis, the first four main components (layer factor, tiller factor, main ear length factor, leaf width factor) explained 77.65% of the variation. The cluster analysis showed that ten quantitative traits could be used to classify plants into four groups. Groups Ⅰ and Ⅱ were important parents for screening oats, group Ⅲ was not found to be prominent, and groups Ⅳ and Ⅴ had excellent comprehensive traits. Results showed that the quality of oat germplasms could be determined by comprehensive evaluation and two-dimensional sorting. The best germplasms identified here can be used as parents to screen high-yield forage oats or to select multi-target traits.