Genetic Diversity of Mineral, Nutritional Traits and Glutenin in Wheat

The important minerals regarding malnutrition 'Hidden hunger', i.e., zinc and copper along with manganese exhibited high mean and variance in the present germplasm. Concentrations of various mineral contents were in the order: Fe > Zn > Mn >Cu >N >B >K >P >Na. The accession 11255 was better for fibre, phosphorus, copper, seed length and seed width; 11309 better for oil, protein, nitrogen, zinc, copper and iron; 11315 for oil, Phosphorus, copper, iron and sodium; the accession 18696 was better for moisture, protein, nitrogen, phosphorus and manganese; 11272 for moisture, phosphorus, zinc, copper and iron; 11255 for ash, phosphorus, copper, seed length and seed width, and 11309 for protein, nitrogen, zinc, copper and iron. In the germplasm, two accessions (11164 and 11171) produced bold seeds so these accessions could be used for improving seed size in wheat. Principal component analysis revealed that nine traits, contributed 67.7 % of the total variation, hence data reduction in these experiments proved practical implication for utilization by the breeders. The characteristics imparting maximum variance to PC1 included protein, nitrogen and zinc. Cluster analysis based on SDS-PA.