Analysis and evaluation of agronomic traits in Allium sativum L. germplasm resources

【Objective】 To analyze the agronomic characters of garlic germplasm resources, and conduct preliminary identification and comprehensive evaluation. In order to comprehensively explore the characteristics, and provide theoretical reference for the future development, genetic diversity analysis, innovative utilization and new variety breeding of resources.【Method】 In this study, investigated 12 agronomic traits including plant height, stem diameter, leaf length, leaf width and single bulb weight of 184 garlic germplasm resources. Its coefficient of variability was calculated. The coefficient of variation, correlation, principal components and cluster were analyzed.【Result】 The variation coefficients of the 12 agronomic traits of 184 germplasm resources ranged from 14.072% to 67.993% of 12 agronomic traits of 184 garlic germplasm resources, stem diameter, leaf length, leaf number and thickness of shortened stem were all greater than 40.000%. Moreover, correlation analysis showed that there were different degrees of correlation among different agrono-mic traits of germplasm, the main agronomic traits that affected the yield of garlic included bulb height, bulb diameter, diameter of short stem, bulbel width and bulbel height, respectively. Further, principal component analysis found that the cumulative contribution rate of the four factors was 76.226%. The main factors were the bulb transverse diameter, plant height, single bulb weight, bulbel height, bulb height, bulb stem thickness, and the number of leaves. Cluster analysis showed that the 184 garlic germplasm resources could be grouped into seven groups at the Euclidean distance of 20.00, of which the Ⅳ and Ⅴ germplasm groups, largely from Guizhou, had a better comprehensive performance. By calculating a comprehensive agronomic trait score for all 184 germplasms, 21 germplasms with the highest agronomic trait scores were selected, 20 of which came from Guizhou.【Conclusion】 The 184 garlic germplasm resources display substantial differences in agronomical traits. Several derived from Guizhou displayed excellent comprehensive performance and thus, provide material for the screening of excellent garlic germplasm resources.