IOSR Journal of Agriculture and Veterinary Science (IOSR-JAVS) e-ISSN: 2319-2380, p-ISSN: 2319-2372. Volume 7, Issue 7 Ver. I (July. 2014), PP 31-43 www.iosrjournals.org www.iosrjournals.org 31 | Page Assessment of Genetic Diversity of Some Indigenous Collections of Upland Taro [Colocassia esculenta var. antiquorium (L.) Schott] for Selection of Genotypes Aiming at Improvement in Breeding Programme Mainak Bhattacharjee 1 , Jayanta Tarafdar 2 and Raghunath Sadhukhan 1 ( 1 Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia-741252, West Bengal, India.) ( 2 All India Coordinated Research Project on Tuber Crops, Directorate of Research, Kalyani, Nadia-741235, West Bengal, India.) Abstract: Upland taro [Colocassia esculenta var. antiquorium (L). Schott] is a crop of tremendous economic and social importance for its nutritive values, high energy yield per unit area, wide adaptability and high level genetic diversity. Yet received little attention for its genetic improvement and limited studies have been conducted on molecular evaluation of the crop. The objective of present study was to study the genetic divergence among twenty genotypes of upland taro using D 2 and principal component analysis. As per cluster analysis, the genotypes were grouped into six clusters consisting of 4, 9, 3, 1, 2 and 1 genotypes which revealed that there exist considerable diversity among the genotypes. Some of the local collections viz., BCC 15, BCC 18 and BCC 25 were very close to each other and may be a duplication which was evident in the D 2 analysis. As per dendrogram, Muktakesi was also closely related to Topi. Highest genetic dissimilarity was noticed between the genotypes BCC 21 and BCC 30, BCC 18 and BCC 30 and between BCC 30 and BCC 46. But, considering the magnitude of genetic distance, contribution of different characters towards the total divergence and magnitude of cluster means for different characters, the genotypes FC-4, FC-11, PKS-1, BCC-32, BCC-30 and Muktakeshi might be selected as suitable genotypes for future breeding program. Keywords: Dendrogram, genetic diversity, parent selection, RAPD profiling, Upland taro. I. Introduction Taro [Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott] is one of the oldest cultivated crops grown for its edible corms and leaves ([1], [2], [3]). It is an important tropical tuber crop, used as a staple food or subsistence food by millions of people in the developing countries in Asia, Africa and Central America. World-wide it is the fifth most consumed root vegetable (FAOSTAT, 2005) with over 25% produced in Oceania and South-East Asia. The corms, leaves and petioles are used as a vegetable and considered as a rich source of carbohydrates, proteins, minerals and vitamins like, iron, phosphorus, zinc, potassium, copper, manganese and thiamin, riboflavin, pyridoxin, ascorbic acid and niacin respectively. Taro corms are very high in starch, and are a good source of dietary fiber and are also credited with having medicinal values. Production potentiality of taro does not only depend on cultural practices and management, but also on the suitability of taro varieties. Despite its importance as a popular edible tuber crop, very little attention has been devoted to the genetic improvement of taro. Information on the sexual potentialities of the crop has been very fragmentary, and the improvement programme have been largely dependent on the exploitation of the existing genetic variability among the cultivars ([2], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8]). For a long time it was believed that taro plants do not flower, and therefore fail to produce seeds ([9], [10]). However, later reports from different countries indicate that many clones flower and produce viable seeds ([11], [9], [10], [12], [13], [14]). Genetic diversity is a useful tool in quantifying the degree of divergence in a biological population at genotypic level and to assess relative contribution of different components to the total divergence both at intra and inter-cluster levels ([15]). Cluster analysis is also carried out to detect divergent parents for hybridization purposes and to attain meaningful group constellations of a collection of genotypes. The progress of breeding is conditioned by the magnitude and nature of inter-relationship among the characters and variation of different characteristics. Knowledge about genetic control of the characters is essential in formulating an efficient breeding scheme as it provides not only a basis for selection but also some valuable indication relating selection of parents to be hybridized. Among various PCR based assays, Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA primers (RAPD) are more important because they do not need any sequence information ([16]). The RAPD technique has received a great deal of attention from population geneticists ([17]) because of its simplicity and rapidity in revealing DNA-level genetic variation, and therefore has been praised as the DNA equivalent of allozyme electrophoresis ([18]).