Genetic Diversity of Indigenous Mungbean ( Vigna radiata L. Wilczek) Germplasm Collection in Oman

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Mungbean ( Vigna radiata L. Wilczek) is a grain legume crop grown all over Arabian Peninsula countries including Oman often as a dual crop for both food and fodder during summer. Consumers and farmers prefer large size seed for food. This paper highlights the results of collecting missions of mungbean germplasm undertaken between 2008 and 2011 and analysis of genetic diversity of collected accessions based on seed traits. 25 seed samples/accessions were collected with the largest number from South Batinah coastal governorate represented by wilayat Rustaq (9) followed by southern Dhofar governorate (6), eastern Sharqiyah governorates (4), Dhahira & Buraimi governorates (3), interior Al-Dakhliyah governorate (2) and North Batinah coastal governorate (1). The seed samples of the accessions collected were highly diverse with respect to all the characters associated with seed such as seed length (cm) and width (cm), 100-seed weight (g) and seed color. Seed length varied from 0.35 cm to 0.76 cm; seed width ranged from 0.245 cm to 0.495 cm; 100-seed weight varied from 1.8 g to 7.3 g. The accessions were grouped into 16 genetically diverse clusters based on the Principal Component Analysis, which indicated the major contribution of seed width and 100-seed weight to the total variation existing in indigenous germplasm collected from all the governorates of Oman. With respect to seed color, six accessions numbering OMA 284, OMA 295, OMA 313, OMA 335, OMA 341 and OMA 345 were homogenous (pure) with their characteristic green color. The remaining 19 seed accessions were heterogeneous (mixture) with seeds of various colors such as green, brown and black. Critical analysis of seed colors of these samples indicated the presence of 4 groups of which the largest group had 12 seed accessions with green, black seed color followed by one group of three seed accessions with green, brown and black seed color and two groups of two accessions, each with green, black, brown, and green, brown seeds, respectively.