Evaluation of Yield Performance and Molecular Diversity in F2 Population of Soybean, Glycine Max, (L.) Merrill Genotypes

Abstract

This study was carried out on the evaluation of yield performance and molecular diversity in F2 population of soybean genotypes using SNP markers. The aim of the study was to assess the growth performance of the F2 soybean population and to also assess the genetic diversity among the soybean genotypes based on SNP markers with a view of devising a breeding strategy for selection for further improvement. The field experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. The result showed that mean square due to genotypes were highly significant for all the characters except number of branches per plant. Genotypes and year of planting interacted significantly (P≤0.05 and P≤0.01) for plant height at flowering, plant height at harvesting, number of pods, total pod weight and seed yield. The genotypes recorded higher mean values of all the characters in the second year than the first year indicating that variation in environmental conditions influenced the performance of the genotypes. At the molecular level, SNP markers were used to assess the extent of polymorphism among the F2 populations and the markers showed remarkable genetic diversity among the soybean genotypes.