Vol. 12, Issue 1 (2023)

Author(s):
Ravada Divya Bandhavi, Devraj Lenka, Bansidhar Pradhan and Rajendra Kumar Panda

Abstract:
Genetically diverse parents give an increased chance of genetic recombination and superior expression of hybrid vigour. Mahalanobis D² statistics is an important tool for calculating the amount of genetic diversity in the populations and for assessing the relative contribution of various components to the total genetic divergence. The present experiment comprised of fifty five mungbean germplasm lines tested over two years in a randomized block design with two replications to study genetic diversity. D2 analysis indicated that material was genetically diverse. five clusters were formed by dividing the genotypes. The highest intra-cluster distance was associated with Cluster I, II found appropriate for within group hybridization due to the presence of most heterogeneous genotypes indicating high intra-cluster value. To become highly genetically diverse, the inter-cluster distance should be high (the most divergent clusters were Cluster II and Cluster IV followed by Clusters II and Cluster V , Cluster II & Cluster III, which can be used for hybridization programme. Cluster data revealed that genotypes in cluster VI and V had desirable traits for yield improvement. These clusters could be directly selected for breeding programme. Among the yield attributing traits, the maximum contribution towards divergence was made by seed yield/plant, followed by no. of pods per plant & hundred seed weight.