Hereditary divergence, linkages and performance comparison in case of various genotypes of mungbean (Vigna radiata L.)

To identify the major parameters which account for variation among fifty genotypes of Mungbean (Vigna radiata L.), they were studied using single linkage cluster analysis (SLCA) and principle component analysis (PCA). Ten characteristics were studied: days to flowering (DF), days to maturity (DM), plant height (PH), primary branches per plant (PBP), secondary branches per plant (SBP), number of pods per plant (NPP), pod length (PL), seeds per pod (SPP), seed yield per plant (SYPP) and thousand seed weight (TSW). The first four components, with eigen values >1 contributed 65.1138% of the variability among the genotypes. First PC was more related to all ten characters (SB, PB, PH, SP, PL, SYP, PP, TSW, DF and DM) whereas the second PC relates to four characters (TSW, SYP, PH and PP). Third PC exhibited positive effect for five parameters (PL, TSW, PH, DF and PB) but fourth PC was positive to four characters (PL, SB, SP and PP). Highest estimates of heritability were ranged between 0.906 (DF) to 0.998 (SYPP) in all characters except 0.603 (DM). Genetic advance ranged between 13.0432 for NPP and 1.1841 for PL. Positive and significant correlation was exhibited by most of the traits. Greater magnitude of broad sense heritability coupled with higher genetic advance in characters under study provided the evidence that these plant characters were under the control of additive genetic variance indicating that selection should lead to a fast genetic improvement of the material. Clusters with superior agronomic traits identified, may be exploited for genetic potential to transfer the desirable genes to improve yield potential of the mungbean crop.