Genetic Divergence in Flue-Cured Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.)

Abstract

Twenty four promising varieties of flue-cured tobacco were studied for
their genetic divergence by D2 statistics with a set of seven characters
related to yield and quality of the leaf The study revealed that genetic
divergence has little relevance to geographical origin of the varieties.
The maximum divergence was obserredfor quality of leaf, bright leaf and
TBLE followed by number of leaves per kg. The varieties, Me 1 and Speight
G33, when crossedwith McNair 14 and Jayasree are likely to yield segregants
with high yield coupled with better quality in subsequent generations.