Metroglyph analysis of Groundnut germplasms for the assessment of morphological variations and preliminary classification

Abstract

Morphological variations among 30 advance lines of groundnut were estimated using metroglyph and Index Score method for ten quantitative characters. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the genotypes for all characters. High estimates of the genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) were observed for Seed yield per plant followed by the Seed Index, biological yield per plant and Harvest Index. Seed yield per plant and Seed Index showed high GCV and plotted a graph on their mean values which represented as a glyph. Remaining eight characters were depicted by a ray, the ray for anyone trait having the same position on each glyph. Thirty germplasms of groundnut were grouped into eight clusters, out of these group IV has the highest number of genotypes. Highly diverse germplasms on the basis of their total index score were ICMS-25, ICMS-97, ICMS-26, ICMS-20, and ICMS-82. The scoring procedure would be utilized in the preliminary screening of a large number of germplasm for selection with a desirable combination.