Genetic diversity studies in blackgram (Vigna mungo L. Hepper)

Divergence analysis of 46 genotypes including 20 genotypes of blackgram and 26 accessions of V. mungovar. silvestris, a wild progenitor species for eleven biometrical traits was carried out using Mahalanobis D² statistics. The genotypes were grouped into twelve clusters. The cluster I was the largest with 25 accessions of V. mungovar. silvestris while,other clusters consisted of two cultivated genotypes. Cluster XII had only one accession viz., V. mungo. var. silvestris acc 10. This study showed clear grouping of V. mungovar. silvestris accessions from the cultivated blackgram (V. mungo) genotypes. Cluster XI recorded the maximum intra cluster distance of 12.58 followed by cluster X with a distance of 11.39. The highest inter cluster distance was found between cluster IX and cluster XII (28.71) followed by cluster XI and XII (23.79) and cluster V and XII (23.30). Based on cluster mean and divergence, it was concluded that the hybridization between accessions of V. mungo var. silvestris in clusters I and XII and cultivated genotypes in the other clusters could produce desirable recombinants for plant type, important economic traits and grain yield.