PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIP AND SCREENING OF DIVERSE GERMPLAM OF CARROT (DAUCUS CAROTA) FOR DROUGHT RESISTANCE

Present study was under taken to screen drought resistant genotypes from diverse germplams of carrot with special reference to their morphological and biochemical behavior towards the progressive scarcity of water (T-1=60%, T-2=40% and T-0= 100% field capacity moisture level). Root weight showed highest CV% and appeared to be the highly influenced trait under drought stress. Principal component analysis showed that root weight and membrane thermo-stability contributed 37.13% and 25.02 % of total variation in PC1 and PC2, respectively. Investigated carrot population was truncated into 4 clusters on basis of similarity and variations among the genotypes for all the traits under study. It was inferred from the statistical analysis that genotype Ames 27397 has the highest root weight and membrane thermo-stability while the lowest drought susceptibility index appeared to be highly tolerant against drought. On the other hand, genotype P1 652348 and Ames 29084 have minimum root weight, membrane thermo-stability and maximum drought susceptibility index, reflecting it highly susceptible.