Assesment of divergence among soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] genotypes based on phenological and physiological traits

Abstract

A study was conducted to understand genetic divergence in Randomized complete block design accommodating 30 soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] genotypes randomly in three replications. These genotypes were evaluated for twenty-seven traits: five phenological, nine agro-morphological, eight physiological traits (from field-trial) and five physiological traits (from laboratory experiment) recorded and subjected to PCA (Principal Component Analysis) and cluster analysis. Among all the studied cultivars, significant diversity, as well as analysis of dispersion, was recorded for different agro-morphological characters. D2-statistic (Tocher method) framed (generalized distance-based) nine clusters: largest with eight and five were oligo-genotypic. Harvest index>seed yield per plant>germination relative index>seedling dry weight contributed maximum towards total divergence. From the most divergent clusters, 21 crosses involving cluster v genotypes (PS-1347, RKS-18, PS-1092, NRC-142, VLS-94, NRC-136, and Shalimar Soybean-1) with monogenotypic cluster VII (AMS-2014), VIII (RSC-11-15) and III (RSC-10-71) suggested for future hybridization. Out of eighteen, only eight principal components revealed more than 1.00 eigen value and exhibited about 85.03% variability among the traits studied. The highest variability (25.41%) by PC1 followed by PC2 (15.60%), PC3 (12.35%), PC4 (10.13%), PC5 (7.20%), PC6 (5.43%), PC7 (4.80%) and PC8 (4.11%) for characters under study.