1Department of Agricultural Botany, J.V. College, Baraut, Baghpat-250 611, Uttar Pradesh, India
2Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel University of Agriculture & Technology, Meerut – 205 110, Uttar Pradesh, India
3Shahuji Post Graduate Degree College, Nazimabad, Bijnor – 246 763, Uttar Pradesh, India; e-mail: oktomar64@gmail.com
*Present address: Project Directorate for Farming Systems Research, Modipuram, Meerut – 250 110, Uttar Pradesh
Online published on 14 December, 2011.
Genetic divergence analysis is a powerful tool in quantifying the degree of divergence between biological populations and to assess the relative contribution of different components to the total divergence. The present investigation aimed at ascertaining the nature and magnitude of genetic diversity among a set of chickpea genotypes. Forty-five genotypes of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) were grown in twelve environments and subsequently analyzed in order to select potential parents for hybridisation. Based on D2 values, 45 genotypes were grouped into eight clusters. Cluster V consisted of 8 genotypes followed by cluster VIII and VI, which had 7 and 6 genotypes, respectively. Maximum intra-cluster distance (2.89) was observed in cluster VIII, followed by cluster VI (2.58), cluster IV (2.34) and cluster I (2.33). Maximum inter-cluster distance was noticed between cluster IV and VIII (6.38). Crossing between genotypes from the cluster IV and VIII may lead to maximum diversity in the segregating populations and development of high yielding varieties.
Chickpea, D2 statistic, Genetic divergence, Intra and inter-cluster distance
