Evaluation of Morphometric and Physiological Divergence Present in Cultivated Cotton Germplasm

作者：Sabir Hussain, Muhammad Irfan Yousaf, Muhammad Bilal Jamil, Muhammad Nouman Manzoor, Saqib Saleem, Musarrat Shaheen, Imran Akhtar, Imran Akram, Ghulam Murtaza, Muhammad Shah Jahan Bukhari, Mahreen Khalid, SYED WAQAR HUSSAIN SHAH · 发表于：Global Research Journal of Natural Science and Technology · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.53762/grjnst.04.01.28 · 研究领域：Research in Cotton Cultivation、Genetics and Plant Breeding、Peanut Plant Research Studies

Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is a major fiber crop of Pakistan; however, its productivity has declined in recent years due to climatic stress, pest pressure, and limited genetic improvement. The present study was conducted to assess genetic diversity and identify superior cotton genotypes using multivariate statistical approaches. Eleven cotton genotypes were evaluated at the Cotton Research Station, Bahawalpur, under a randomized complete block design with three replications. Data were recorded for key agronomic, physiological, yield, and fiber quality traits, including plant height, number of nodes, monopodial and sympodial branches, green bolls, open bolls, net photosynthetic rate, ginning out turn, fiber length, and seed cotton yield. Analysis of variance revealed significant genetic variability among genotypes for most traits, particularly plant height, monopodial branches, net photosynthetic rate, fiber length, ginning out turn, and yield. Correlation analysis showed that seed cotton yield was strongly and positively associated with net photosynthetic rate (r = 0.95**), open bolls (r = 0.80**), number of nodes (r = 0.78**), and plant height (r = 0.75**), while a strong negative correlation was observed between yield and fiber length (r = –0.96**), indicating a trade-off between yield and fiber quality. Cluster analysis grouped the genotypes into three distinct clusters, with Cluster-2 exhibiting superior performance for yield and yield-related traits. Principal compon...