Estimation of genetic variability and association among different physiological traits related to biotic stress (Fusarium oxysporum L.) in chickpea.

ABSTRACT Experiment was conducted to assess genetic differences among chickpea genotypes under normal and biotic stress(inoculated with Fusarium oxysporum L.) conditions, to estimate the relationship among different biotic stress relatedtraits and to identify suitable parental material to be used in breeding programs for the development of genotypesresistant to fusarium wilt. The responses of 70 different chickpea genotypes were evaluated on the basis of differentphysiological traits by following principal component analysis (PCA). According to PCA, under normal and stressconditions out of eight only 4 PCs had more than one eigen value in each case and collectively contributed 71.50% and75.2% variability under normal and stress conditions respectively. Biplot analysis depicted that under normal conditionthe genotypes 1007, 60101, 7008, 405, PB91, B3008, 3013, 7002, 7012, 1217, 6011, BITAL98, 6028 and CH-8 werehighly diversified, whereas under stress condition, genotypes 7059, 4004, 6001, 7046, 1288 and 1143 proved resistantand presented the greatest diversity. Genotypes 6028, 7027, BRC236, 5028, 7056-1, 6010, 6003, 1217, 3013, 4028¸6017, 7010, 3019, PB2000, 5006, 6255, 4046, PB2008, B3008, 1159, 2009-1, and 6011 were found with least diversityand declared as susceptible because of poor performance.Key words: Chickpea, Fusarium wilt, Biplot, PCA and Correlation.