Studies on Genetic Divergence in Table Pea [Pisum sativum (L.) Spp. Hortense]

Abstract

The present investigation entitled, "Studies on Genetic Divergence in Table pea [Pisum sativum (L.) spp. hortense]" involving forty selections was undertaken to examine the genetic variability, heritability, genetic advance, correlation coefficient, path coefficient analysis and genetic divergence. All the forty table pea selections were tested in randomized block design with 3 replications during Rabi 2013-14. Observations were recorded. for days to 50% flowering, plant height (em), length of first fruiting node (em), number of first fruiting node, number of branches per plant, length of pod (em), width of pod (em), number of seeds per pod, number of pods per plant and seed yield per plant. Improvement in yield can be made by selecting these yield conttibuted traits having high heritability coupled with high genetic advance. Phenotypic correlations were of higher magnitude as compare to their corresponding genotypic correlation in most of the character combination. Seed yield was found to be positive and significantly correlated with number of pods per plant, length of first fruiting node and days to 50% flowering. Thus, any selection based on these characters will enhance performance and improvement in Table pea. Path coefficient analysis showed that number of pods per plant, length of first fruiting node and days to 50% flowering were the most important characters, controlling directly to seed yield. Mahalanobis D2 statistic revealed considerable genetic diversity among the genotypes. The genotypes grouped into seven clusters. The I .~d III cluster having the maximum nun1ber of genoty~es. This envisaged that the genotypes grouped within a particular cluster are more or less genetically similar to each other and apparent wide diversity is mainly due to the remaining genotype distributed over rest of the other cluster. Divergence study suggested that crosses suggesting selections like Sel-3, Sel-6, Sel-17, Sel-22, KS-210, Sel-7, KS-205, AP-3, Sel-19 and Sel-27 for getting desired segregants from breeding point of view.