Divergence analysis in kabuli chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Abstract

The role of genetic diversity and its significance has been recognized for the selection of desirable parents in breeding programme to obtain high heterotic response and transgressive segregents. The genetic diversity in desi chickpea (Gicer arietinum L.) genotypes has been studied by many workers [1-2]. However, information available on genetic diversity in kabuli chickpea is limited. Therefore, this study was carried out to analyze the genetic diversity in kabuli chickpea genotypes in order to select the potential parents for breeding programme. Eighty one genotypes of kabuli chickpea representing diverse collection of local selections, breeding lines, cultivars and commercial varieties were grown in randomized block design in three replications during rabi 2003-04. Each genotype was sown in single row plot of 3.5 meter length. Observations were recorded for eight morphological characters namely days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height (cm), pods per plant, 100-seed weight (g), seeds per pod, secondary branches per plant and grain yield per plant (g). The genetic divergence among genotypes was computed by means of Mahalanobis' D2 technique [3]. The difference between the genotypes for the set of characters was tested and the genotypes were grouped into clusters following Tocher's method [4]. The relative contribution of characters towards divergence was estimated using canonical analysis.