The genetic diversity and similarity were investigated in thirty-four elite parental lines of tetraploid cotton using biochemical and molecular marker techniques using seed and seedling extracts. In present investigation, the cotton lines exhibited the polymorphism for Protein (SDS-PAGE), Esterase, Peroxidase and Polyphenol oxidaes. The Relative Mobility (Rm) values ranged from 0.083 to 0.883 (protein), 0.100 to 0.971 (esterase), 0.033 to 0.283 (peroxidase) and 0.048 to 0.206 (polyphenol oxidase), whereas in molecular investigation using RAPD, among the well amplified primers, the primer number 5 (GGAGGGTGTT) exhibited cent per cent polymorphism followed by primer number 9 (CCGCATGTAC) 77.78 per cent, primer number 11 (CTCACCGTCC) 75.00 per cent, primer number 15 (ACCCGGTCAC) 66.67 per cent and lowest by primer number 14 (GGACCCAACC) 58.34 per cent, with an average polymorphism of 72.50 per cent. It can be concluded that the biochemical and molecular marker techniques are found to be quicker for screening of large gene pool. These advanced biochemical and molecular techniques can now supplement to speed up the conventional breeding programmes along with improvement in precision as these biochemical and molecular markers are adequate to judge the dissimilarity among the genotypes for speeding up the selection of parents with assumption that the banding profile is a measure of discrimination among the parental lines which will help the MAS.

The present investigation was taken up to work out the stability of twenty elite soybean genotypes under varying environmental conditions for grain yield and yield contributing characters along with genetic variability, correlation and path coefficient, fatty acid profiling and molecular marker diversity analysis using thirty SSR primers. The field experiment with twenty genotypes of soybean was laid down in randomized complete block design with three replications at four different locations (Norman E. Borlaug Crop Research Centre at G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, ARS, Majhera, IARI, New Delhi and BAU, Kanke, Ranchi) during Kharif 2010 and Kharif 2011. The Analysis of variance was found significant for all the characters undertaken and pooled analysis for phenotypic stability, environments (linear) also differed significantly. As per the criteria of Eberhart and Russell model, genotype PS 1502 was most desirable and stable for yield per plot and number of primary branches per plant, while it showed specific adaptability to rich environment for dry matter weight per plant, oil content and specific adaptability to poor environment for number of seeds per pod. Among all the genotypes, PS 1347, PS 1506 and PS 1510 showed specific adaptation to poor environments for oil content. Genotype PS 1347 showed stability for seed yield per plot and harvest index