Evaluation of Genetic Divergence in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Germplasm

Abstract

A field experiment was carried out to assess the nature and magnitude of genetic divergence in forty genotypes of desi chickpea using Mahalanobis’s D2 Statistics. High magnitude of heritability (bs) was recorded for plant height, days to 50% flowering, biological yield, harvest index, number of pods per plant, seed yield per plot, 100 seed weight and seed yield per plant. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance was observed for seed yield per plant, seed yield per plot, number of pods per plant, 100 seed weight, harvest index, biological yield and plant height suggesting that, the role of additive gene effect and possibilities of achieving high genetic progress through selection. The forty chickpea genotypes were grouped into seven clusters suggesting considerable amount of genetic diversity in the material. The cluster III has a total of 10 genotypes, followed by cluster II with nine, cluster VI with seven, cluster IV and V with four, and cluster I and VII with three genotypes, respectively. The intra-cluster D2 value ranged from 148.25 to 491.49 while, inter-cluster D2value ranged from 386.99 to 2141.49. The maximum intra cluster distance was found in cluster I followed by cluster VII and VI, indicating that cross combinations may occur through hybridization between genotypes from the same clusters. The highest inter-cluster distance was observed between cluster I and V (2141.49), followed by cluster I and IV (1590.64), cluster II and V (1271.17) and cluster I and VII (1184.91) suggesting that the genetic architecture of the genotypes in one cluster differ entirely from those included in other clusters. These lines may be utilized in further breeding programe for the exploitation of hybrid vigour and suggesting wide diversity between them and crossings between genetically diverse lines will result in heterotic segregants, genotypes in these clusters could be employed as parents in a hybridization program to develop desirable plant types. Among the ten traits studied, maximum contribution was made by harvest index (21.28 %) followed by number of pods per plant (19.36%), biological yield (15.13%), plant height (14.87%), days to 50% flowering (12.18%) and seed yield per plant (8.08%). The genotypes ICC15921, ICC15903, K1058 and ICC15926, ICC15226, ICC7549, ICC15855 were identified as genetically diverse parents, which can be utilized for future crop improvement programe in chickpea. The aforementioned findings show that these genotypes contain the greatest genetic diversity and are useful for creating a large number of segregants through a crossing program.