DIVERSITY ANALYSIS AND IDENTIFICATION OF PROMISING LINES FOR HYBRIDIZATION IN FIELD PEA (PISUM SATIVUM L.)

Abstract

In the present study, twenty one advanced breeding lines and two varieties (HUDP 15 and IPFD 1-10) as check were evaluated for assessing genetic divergence for exploitation in a breeding programme aimed at improving yield potential of field pea by using Mahalanobis D² statistics. The intra-cluster D² value ranged from 0.00 to 65.10 while inter-cluster D² value ranged from 101.389 to 763.200 indicated that the selected advance breeding lines were highly divergent. The maximum intra cluster distance was recorded for cluster I (65.109) while cluster IV and V (0.00) showed no intra-cluster distance values revealed homogenous nature of the genotype within the cluster. The genetically more divergent advanced breeding lines present in cluster II and V as indicated by intercluster distance value (763.200). Selecting lines of these clusters probably provide promising recombinants and better segregants for future breeding programme.