Assessment of Phenotypic Variations and Correlation among Yield Attributing and Biochemical Traits in Mutant Population of Grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L.)

The experiment was conducted during the winter season 2014-17 in West Bengal to assess the agro-morphological variation and to carry out association analysis among yield related traits, including biochemical parameters in the gamma rays and EMS derived a total of 51 mutant lines of grasspea. A wide range of variation among the mutant line was observed for 11 agronomic and maturity characters, including yield and three nutritional quality parameters (β-ODAP, protein and TIA). Significant reduction in β-ODAP content as compared to their respective parent was recorded in 5 mutant lines of Nirmal (0.293% β-ODAP), 6 lines selected from Biol-212 (0.107% β-ODAP) and 7 lines isolated from Berhampur Local (0.533% β-ODAP). An association study revealed that seed yield/ plant exhibited positive and significant (p < 0.01) correlation with plant height, primary branches/plant, secondary branches/plant, number of pods/plant, seeds/plant, 100 seed weight, fresh weight/ plant and seed protein content while, it showed highly negative correlation with antinutritional parameters like β-ODAP (-0.374) and TIA (-0.395). Meanwhile, the number of seeds/pod, days to 50% flowering and days to maturity did not exhibited any significant association with plant yield. On the contrary, maturity traits showed a strong positive association with β-ODAP and TIA and a strong negative correlation with seed protein content, which stipulates that a high yielding and early flowering mutants might have low β-ODAP content, which leads to the simultaneous improvement of yield, β-ODAP and protein content of the grasspea mutants under study.