Analysis of the Phenotypic Diversity Within Cultivated Potato Varieties in Ethiopia at Three Locations

Abstract

The phenotypic diversity of 25 potato varieties was analyzed at three distinct locations in the Amhara region of Ethiopia with the main objective of determining the diversity present among them based on 11 quantitative and 18 qualitative morphological characteristics. The fi eld experiment was laid out in a 5 × 5 balanced lattice design with six replications. The results of analysis of variance indicated highly signifi cant (P < 0.01) differences among varieties for all 11 quantitative characteristics considered. Furthermore, analysis of the average taxonomic genetic distance based on 18 qualitative characteristics using the Euclidean distance function revealed considerable divergence among the studied varieties. Accordingly, the genetic distance value ranged from 0.24 between Tolcha and Wochecha, European commercial varieties, to 0.72 between the farmer’s variety Ater Abeba and the improved variety Zengena. The 25 varieties were grouped into three main clusters based on the distance matrix following the hierarchical agglomerative clustering method known as UPGMA (unweighted pair group method with arithmetic mean). Cluster I, which was the largest, contained 18 varieties followed by clusters II and III, with 3 and 4 varieties, respectively. Thus, this study revealed the presence of suffi cient phenotypic diversity among varieties in the country that can be exploited for germplasm enhancement.