Genetic diversity and future prospects in Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal: an assessment based on quantitative traits in different accessions of Ashwagandha

• Published in: Nucleus (Calcutta) 2023-08, Vol.66 (2), p.151-159
• Main Authors: Kumar, Anuj, Husain, Danish, Lal, Raj Kishori, Singh, Satendra, Singh, Vaibhav, Gupta, Anil Kumar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ayurvedic medicine; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Cell Biology; family; Genetic diversity; genetic variation; Hybridization; India; Leaves; Life Sciences; Medicinal plants; morphometry; Original Article; plant height; Roots; Seeds; statistics; Weight; Withania somnifera
• ISSN: 0029-568X; 0976-7975
• DOI: 10.1007/s13237-023-00423-9

Withania somnifera (L.) Dunal is an important medicinal plant belonging to the family Solanaceae. It is widely used in the traditional system of medicines in Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha. The present study assessed genetic diversity among the seventy-five accessions of W. somnifera  collected from different geographical regions of India based on nine morphometric traits, i.e. plant height (cm), number of primary branches, root length (cm), fresh leaves weight (g), dryleaves weight (g), number of seeds per berry, thousand seeds weight [TSW] (g), fresh roots weight (g), and dry roots weight (g). Data from the above nine parameters were statistically analyzed using Mahalanobis D 2 statistics, and Toucher's method was applied for clustering of all the acquisitions. A total of nine distinct clusters were formed. Surprisingly, fifty-six accessions were included in Cluster-1, where more than 70% of the studied accessions were grouped, whereas the second largest cluster (Cluster-II) had only seven accessions. However, Clusters V, VI, VII, VIII, and IX had single accession. The highest inter-cluster distance was between Cluster V and VI (√D 2  = 173.05). The intra-cluster distance decreased with decreasing accessions in each group. As such, the maximum intra-cluster distance was observed for cluster I (57.05) and the minimum for cluster IV (29.62). Three characters, viz., dry leaves weight (42.88%), primary branches (13.87%), and fresh roots weight (10.80), showed maximum contribution towards total divergence among all the studied characters. The findings from the present investigations can be successfully utilized for the hybridization programme of Ashwagandha.