Abstract
Guar, the most popular vegetable, is tolerant of drought and is a valuable industrial crop enormously grown across India, Pakistan, USA, and South Africa for pharmaceutically and cosmetically usable galactomannan (gum) content present in seed endosperm. Guar genotypes with productive traits which could perform better in differential environmental conditions are of utmost priority for genotype selection. This could be achieved by employing multivariate trait analysis. In this context, Multi-Trait Stability Index (MTSI) and Multi-Trait Genotype-Ideotype Distance Index (MGIDI) were employed for identifying high-performing genotypes exhibiting multiple traits. In the current investigation, 85 guar accessions growing in different seasons were assessed for 15 morphological traits. The results obtained by MTSI and MGIDI indexes revealed that, out of 85, only 13 genotypes performed better across and within the seasons, and, based on the coincidence index, only three genotypes (IC-415106, IC-420320, and IC-402301) were found stable with high seed production in multi-environmental conditions. View on strengths and weakness as described by the MGIDI reveals that breeders concentrated on developing genotype with desired traits, such as quality of the gum and seed yield. The strength of the ideal genotypes in the present work is mainly focused on high gum content, short crop cycle, and high seed yield possessing good biochemical traits. Thus, MTSI and MGIDI serve as a novel tool for desired genotype selection process simultaneously in plant breeding programs across multi-environments due to uniqueness and ease in interpreting data with minimal multicollinearity issues.
Highlights
The coefficient of variation (CV) was highest for the number of branches plant−1 (67.14%) with a range of 0 to 22, followed by clusters plant−1 (36.53%), carbohydrates (11.08), and the variation was least for days taken for maturity (3.97) with a range of 87–110 days
Among many leguminous crops grown in India, guar stands as a unique crop due to its gum content commercially known as galactomannan
Due to its wider applications in different industrial sectors, many countries import guar gum from India, contributing maximum towards foreign exchange earnings [14]. This urges a need to develop genotype/cultivar of guar with optimum yielding potential and qualitative gum content even when grown under varied environmental conditions
Summary
‘Guar’, a synonym of cluster bean (Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L.) Taub), is one of the underutilized legumes that finds a place as a popular vegetable and industrial-oriented crop. The Multi-Trait Stability Index (MTSI) [23] and the Multi-Trait Genotype-Ideotype Distance Index (MGIDI) [24], have emerged as novel tools for selecting superior genotypes which could perform better across different environmental conditions with high stability in yield and desirable traits. Based on this background, the current study proposes a framework to identify suitable stable genotypes of guar for cultivation in Karnataka by using MTSI and MGIDI indices for multi-factorial multi-trait stability analysis towards identifying ideal and high yielding genotypes of with higher galactomannan content across varied environmental conditions
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