Assessment of genetic diversity for yield and seedling traits in soybean (Glycine max L. Merrill)

Forty five germplasm accessions of soybean were selected at CCSHAU, Hisar during kharif, 2014 to study genetic diversity utilizing Mahalanobis D2 statistic. The analysis suggested considerable genetic divergence among the material for all the character studied. Based on Mahalanobis D2 statistic, the 45 accessions were grouped into 8 cluster, wherein cluster II was the largest one having 11 accessions. The maximum inter-cluster distance was observed between cluster III and VII. Intra-cluster distance was maximum for cluster V, indicating the existence of high variability within the cluster. Cluster mean values for yield and seedling traits revealed considerable differences between the clusters for all characters under study. Among the 15 characters studied, the most important character contributing to the total divergence was number of pods per plant (42.75%) followed by seed yield per plant (22.10%) and root length (19.70). So, these characters should be given due consideration while selecting parents for hybridization.