Assessment of variability based on morphometric characteristics in the core set of soybean germplasm accessions

The present study aimed at assessing the extent and pattern of genetic diversity within a core set of soybean germplasm comprising of 98 accessions. A total of thirty-one morphometric traits were studied, among them qualitative traits viz., leaf shape, flower color, seed coat color, and hypocotyl colour showed a higher genetic diversity with higher diversity indices. The variability parameters like mean, range of variation, GCV, PCV, heritability and genetic advance were estimated for 18 quantitative traits. The differences between GCV and PCV estimates were narrow for most quantitative traits indicating less contribution of environmental factors in traits expression. High estimates of heritability coupled with high genetic advance were observed in all quantitative traits except for days to maturity. The traits with higher heritability and GA value may indicate their variability and high selective value. Expression of lines in biplots using the first four principal components explains 79.10% of total variation and says black and yellow seeded genotypes have higher and lower variability to exploit, respectively. Hence, selection pressure could profitably be applied to these traits for their improvement.