Multivariate analysis in blackgram (Vigna mungo (L) hepper) genotypes

Abstract

A study was carried out to determine the relationship and genetic diversity among twenty-one blackgram genotypes using Mahalanobis’s D2 and principal component analysis for various quantitative traits over three seasons. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the blackgram genotypes. Twenty-one genotypes were grouped into six clusters. The maximum intra cluster distance was observed in cluster II. The maximum inter cluster distance was found between cluster III and V (D2 = 3402.97). The clusters II and V showed high mean values for seed yield per plant. In principal component analysis, first component had contribution from the traits viz., number of pods per plant, pod length, number of seeds per pod, seed yield per plant which accounted 35.44% to the total variability. The remaining variability of 20.06%, 12.39% and 11.23% was accounted by second, third and fourth principal components by various traits viz., number of branches, pod weight and 100 seed weight. The cumulative variance of 79.12% of total variation among eleven characters was explained by the first four axes.