Genetic divergence and selection indices for yield and its contributing traits in virginia groundnut

Abstract

The genetic divergence measured by Mahalanobis’s D2-statistic grouped 60 genotypes into 13 clusters. The clustering pattern of the genotypes did not confirm to the geographical distribution. The lowest intra-cluster distance was in cluster X whereas the highest intra-cluster distance was in cluster XIII. The maximum inter-cluster distance found between cluster between cluster XIII and V. The minimum inter-cluster distance found between cluster VI and V. Among all the 31 selection indices, the index based on five component characters viz., pod yield per plant, number of matured pods per plant, 100-kernel weight, biological yield per plant and harvest index possessed the highest genetic gain and relative efficiency followed by an index based on four characters viz., pod yield per plant, number of matured pods per plant, 100-kernel weight and biological yield per plant possessed the highest genetic gain and relative efficiency.