Genetic diversity analysis in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Abstract

Genetic diversity study was conducted in 60 promising chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genotypes using Mahalanobis D2 Statistics. Based on D2 values, 60 genotypes were grouped into nine clusters. The cluster I consisted of maximum 29 genotypes, followed by Cluster II, cluster III which had 10 genotypes each and cluster IV with 6 genotypes. The highest statistical distance (D=42.56) was found between the clusters III and VIII, followed by the cluster III and VI (36.11) and cluster III and VII (35.45). Maximum expression of genotypes towards diversity was observed for 100 seed weight (59.60%) and protein content (13.73%) whereas, however, days to 50 per cent flowering (11.98%), seed yield per plant (7.80%) contributed medium expression of genotypes. Based on inter cluster distances and Per se performance Phule G-0914-8-20, SAGL152199, NO.37/55, IPC 2015-120, Phule Vikram and Phule G-0914-6-17 were identified for inclusion in hybridization programme for realizing desirable transgressive segregates.