Cluster analysis in field pea (Pisum sativum L.)

Abstract

113 field pea genotypes including three checks viz., Rachna, Ambica and HFP 4 were grouped in 11 distinct and non-overlapping clusters using Non-hierarchical Euclidean cluster analysis, which substantiated presence of considerable diversity in the germplasm collections studied in the experiment. Cluster VI had highest number of genotypes, followed by cluster IV, IX and XI. Lowest number of genotypes was recorded in cluster VIII. The eleven clusters in divergence analysis contained genotypes of heterogeneous origin thereby indicating no parallelism between genetic and geographic diversity. Cluster pairs exhibiting very high inter-cluster distance were observed between clusters V and X and cluster III and X. The highest intra cluster distance was observed in cluster II followed by cluster I and cluster VII, while, the lowest values were recorded in case of cluster X. The results of Non-hierarchical Euclidean cluster analysis obtained under present study are also in agreement with the result of (Sureja and Sharma, 2001 and Yadav et. al., 2009). Maximum contribution in manifestation of total genetic divergence was made by plant height followed by biological yield/plant. The minimum contribution was shown by number of primary branches/plant, grain yield/plant and 100 seed weight. Cluster analysis showed that there was a considerable difference in intra-cluster group means for all the ten characters.