Pages: (47-76 )
Abstract
Corchorus olitorius is a vegetable crop that is eaten widely in west Africa and Asia, it has different diversities. Thirty accessions of C. olitorius seeds were collected from two National Research Institutions in Nigeria namely, National Horticultural Research Institutes (NIHORT) and National Center for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (NACGRAB).The objective of this study was to determine the genetic diversity in thirty accessions of C. olitorius. and to determine the character association in the thirty accessions of C. olitorius.
The field screening was carried out simultaneously in four locations and at two seasons; the Teaching and Research Farm , Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Ogun State; and Bethel Gardens, Abeokuta Ogun State Nigeria located at the derived savanna at lat 8o 04 N and long 4o14 E. The experiment was laid out in Complete Randomized Design (CRD) with four replicates. Data collected was analysed using SAS Microsoft windows 8.0 (SAS Institute, 1999). Data was subjected to analysis of variance using the method of Steel and Torrie (1980) . Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to determine the extent of genetic variation and percentage similarity within accession.
Keywords: Accession, Genotype, Phenotype, Environment, Correlation, Variation,