Assessment of Genetic Diversity in Grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L.) Genotypes Using Morphological Markers

Genetic diversity is very important factor for any hybridization program aiming at genetic improvement of yield especially in self pollinated crops. It is widely accepted that information about germplasm diversity and genetic relatedness among elite breeding material is a fundamental element in plant breeding. Genetic variation was evaluated in twenty five grasspea genotypes for thirteen morphological traits through analysis of variance and multivariate analysis. The analysis of variance for all the characters revealed highly significant variation among the genotypes of grasspea except for days to 50% fruiting. BD 3618, BD 3620 and BD 3621 were found as superior on the basis of the mean performance of desirable traits. The genotypes were grouped into five clusters through principal component analysis (PCA). A total of 84.58% variation was observed from PCA against first thirteen eigen values while only first two values were responsible for 53.25% variation. The inter cluster distance was maximum (17.038) between the cluster V and III and the lowest (2.6) distance between IV and I. Considering cluster mean, the genotypes of cluster III might be selected as a suitable parent for future hybridization programme. The highest inter genotypic distance was observed between BD 3621-BD 3686 that have separate cluster. Contribution of characters towards divergence obtained from canonical variate analysis. The value of Vector I and Vector II revealed that both Vectors had positive values for Plant height, Pods/Plant and Seed Yield/ Plant indicating the highest contribution of these traits towards the divergence among 25 genotypes of grasspea genotypes.