Study of Genetic Diversity in Wheat Recombinant Inbred Lines by Factor Analysis

To identifying of the high yielding wheat lines with optimal characteristics and to determine the traits which could be used as the selection index for increasing of grain yield, 40 recombinant inbred lines derived from a cross between Norstar and Zagros cultivars were evaluated in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The measured characters consisted of peduncle weight, second internode weight, spike weight, kernels per spikes, biomass, grain yield, 1000 kernel weight, plant height, peduncle length, second internode length, spike length, harvest index, flog leaf area and straw yiel. Significant differences were observed among the lines for all of studied traits, except the spike weight, flag leaf area and the straw yield. Analysis resulted in extraction of four factors. Overall, these values justified 82.26 percent of the entire changes in the data. The first factor was named the length growth factor and the second factor was called the factor affecting the grain yield.  The third factor was named the growth and reproduction factor. The fourth factor was introduced as the factor affecting the 1000 kernel weight. Cluster analysis of these lines based on the four extracted factors placed them in four groups of which the lines in the first group were superior to others with respect to grain yield and other traits associated with it.