Study on Genetic Diversity in Black Gram (Vigna mungo L. Hepper)

The present study carried out with 45 black gram genotypes including one check variety were conducted at Field Experimentation Centre of the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, to study genetic variability, heritability, genetic advance, for 13 quantitative characters. The experiment was conducted by using Randomized Block Design with three replications during Kharif, 2022. Genotype SNTP- 02 (7.44 gms), PL-416 (7.35 gms), AKU-13-15 (7.26 gms), PLU -1016 (7.22gms), KC- 153 (7.21gms) were found to be superior in seed yield per plant. High GCV and PCV were observed in Number of primary branches, Number of clusters per plant and Number of pods per plant. Moderate PCV and GCV were observed in Number of pods per plants (43.04), Biological yield (33.77), Seed Yield per plant (30.282), Harvest index (25.4), Low PCV and GCV for Days to 50% pod setting (6.24) Divergence analysis following Mahalanobis (1936) D2 analysis has revealed presence of substantial amount of genetic diversity among the genotypes. These 45 genotypes were grouped into 6 clusters by following Tocher’s method. Cluster I contain 19 genotypes, while the cluster II, III, IV, V, VI were Monogenotypic. The maximum inter cluster distance was observed between Cluster V and I (76.71) and minimum between cluster IV and II (81.02). Variance of cluster means revealed that Seed yield per plant, biological yield, harvest index had a maximum contribution towards divergence in the present material. Thus, the genotypes present in these clusters provide a wide range of segregation diversity and may be employed as parents in a future hybridization study to generate ideal genotypes for yield improvement in Black gram genotypes.