Assessment of genetic diversity of mothbean (Vigna aconitifolia (Jacq.) Marechal) germplasm

Abstract

Mothbean is an important arid pulse crop acknowledged as appreciable sources of protein, micronutrients, vitamins, carbohydrates and minerals. The present study was conducted to assess the genetic diversity among fifty mothbean germplasm by multivariate analysis such as cluster analysis and principal component analysis. The hierarchical cluster analysis divided genotypes into 12 clusters. The maximum number of accessions were observed in Cluster I with 13 germplasm followed by cluster II with 10 genotypes, cluster III and VII with seven genotypes, cluster IV with 6 genotypes and rest of the clusters were monogenotypic. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) gave four principal components accounted for 65.31% of total variability of yield and its component traits. The traits attributing to maximum variation in PC1 included harvest index, seed yield per plant, number of pods per plant, seed index, plant height and number of primary branches. The findings of this research suggested the presence of significant genetic diversity among the tested mothbean germplasm could be a good choice for the selection of parents for the mothbean improvement programme.