PHENOTYPIC DIVERSITY AND QUANTITATIVE TRAIT ANALYSIS IN CHICKPEA GERMPLASM (Cicer arietinum L)

Abstract

The present study was aimed at characterizing the eight cultivars of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) mainly grown in the North Indian region to study the genotype-wise variation pattern, and clustering was analysed in detail for future breeding decisions and helping farmers identify the best genotype for higher yield. 15 chickpea varieties were planted at the agro-experimental farm, Rama University, Kanpur (India), and eight varieties were selected for detailed evaluation. Nine quantitative traits were measured, which included the percentage of germination, plant height, days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, primary and secondary branches per plant, pods per plant, seeds per pod, and thousand-grain weight, in three replications per genotype. Genotypic differences for all the traits investigated were highly significant (P < 0.05), as indicated by ANOVA. The precision of the trial was high with coefficients of variation in the range of 0.18–5.4%. A positive correlation between plant height and days to maturity (r = 0.79) and seeds/pod and TGW (r = 0.64) was found, while the primary branches per plant were negatively correlated with days to maturity, plant height, and days to flowering. Our study shows that a high level of genetic variability was found among the selected genotypes for germination percentage, days to maturity, plant height, primary and secondary branches per plant, pods per plant, and thousand-grain weight. Multivariate analyses consistently led to the identification of genetically distinct and complementary genotypes (e.g., JSC-56, BG-3043, JG-14, and IPC-2011-112), which can be used as desirable parents in a hybridization program for yield-contributing traits.