Phenotypic and genotypic diversity investigations in sugarcane for drought tolerance and sucrose content

Ten elite sugarcane clones were tested for genetic diversity through rapd,sucrose synthase activity was determined via trap and drought tolerance was examined with the help of sts techniques / field trial. rapd study revealed that genetically most similar genotypes were thatta-10 and aec82-223 (80.4%) and most dissimilar genotypes were aec71- 2011 and nia-2004 (49.8%). on the basis of dendrogram,the varieties could be divided into four clusters (a to d). variety aec82-223 produced a specific allele of 311bp with primer b-02. primer sucrose synthase amplified three alleles which were polymorphic and allelic size were 561,327 and 222bp. of 10,seven varieties tagged the specific gene responsible for drought tolerance in the genome. l116 containing a different allele of 912bp amplified with dreb-2 showed the specificity of the variety. maximum sugar recovery % (14.82) and cane yield (t/ha) (156 t/ha) were recorded in aec81-0819.