Genetic, character association and multivariate studies of seed yield with different traits in mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek)

The present study was conducted during rainy season 2018 to evaluate 38 genotypes of mungbean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek] with 12 different traits using general statistics, character association, principal component analysis and cluster analysis. The basic descriptive statistics had showed considerable variance for all the traits. The results of character association studies revealed that Days to first flowering, Days to 50% maturity, Days to pod initiation, Number of primary branches per plant, Number of clusters per plant, Number of pods per plant and seed yield per plant exhibited highly significant positive correlation at both genotypic and phenotypic levels. Through Principal component analysis (PCA), a total cumulative variance of about 73.59% was revealed within four principal components with eigenvalues >1 among the twelve. PC1 with high values contributed more towards the phenology and vegetative growth whereas the PC2 with high values contributed more towards the reproductive growth. All the 38 genotypes were grouped into 6 clusters by Tochers method which will help us in selecting promising genotypes which can be used as parents in future breeding programmes.