Genetic diversity using D2 statistics in chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) under late sown conditions for seed yield characters

Abstract

The present study was carried out to estimate the genetic diversity for yield and yield contributing traits. The experimental material was consisting of 39 chickpea genotypes. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with three replications. The observations were recorded on five randomly selected plants from each treatment and replication for 12 different quantitative traits. Based on D2 values 39 genotypes grouped into 11 clusters. Among 11 clusters cluster I had more number of genotypes (29) followed by cluster II, III, IV,V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI (1) genotype each. The maximum intra cluster distance was observed in cluster I. The highest inter cluster distance observed between cluster VIII and cluster IX followed by cluster IX and cluster XI. The clusters viz., cluster III, cluster II, cluster XI, cluster VII and cluster X had significant and higher cluster mean for seed yield per plant. The trait seed index (14.98%) had maximum contribution towards to genetic divergence followed by number of pods per plant, harvest index, plant height, biological yield per plant, number of effective pods per plant, number of secondary branches per plant, grain yield per plant, number of primary branches per plant, days to 50% flowering, days to 50% pod setting and number of damaged pods per plant.