Genetic Variability and Character Association Studies in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)
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Date
2022-09-19
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Agriculture University, Jodhpur
Abstract
An experiment entitled “Genetic Variability and Character Association
Studies in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)” was conducted with 50 genotypes in Rabi
season 2021-22 at Instructional Farm, Collage of Agriculture, Jodhpur (Rajasthan).
The experiment was carried out in randomized block design (RBD) with 3
replications and two environments (timely and late sown conditions). The
observations were recorded on days to first flower initiate, days to 50 % flowering,
days to first pod formation, days to last pod development, days to maturity, plant
height, number of primary branches per plant, number of secondary branches per
plant, number of pods per plant, 100-seed weight, harvest index, relative water
content, membrane stability index, seed yield per plant, heat tolerant index and heat
susceptible index.
Analysis of variance exhibited significant difference for all the traits in both
timely and late sown conditions, indicating the presence of good amount of inherent
variations. The phenotypic coefficient of variance was higher as compare to genotypic
coefficient of variance for all the traits under study, indicating the influence of
environment on the expression of traits. In both timely and late sown conditions, the
higher value of PCV and GCV was recorded for 100 seed weight.
All the traits under study showed high heritability in both sown conditions,
except number of primary branches per plant, harvest index, membrane stability index
and relative water content, while harvest index showed high heritability in late sown
condition. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance as per cent of mean
was observed for days to first flower initiate, days to 50% flowering, days to first pod
formation, number of pods per plant, 100 seed weight and seed yield per plant in both
timely and late sown conditions. Moreover, plant height and number of secondary
branches per plant showed high heritability with high genetic advance only in late
sown condition. Which indicated that these traits are governed by additive gene action
and direct selection for these traits would be effective.
Analysis of correlation coefficient indicated that seed yield per plant had
positive and significant correlation with plant height, number of secondary branches
per plant, number of pods per plant and harvest index in both timely and late sown
condition. Furthermore, in late sown condition, days to first flower initiate, days to
50% flowering, number of primary branches per plant and relative water content also
exhibited positive and significant correlation with seed yield per plant. According to
path coefficient analysis, the traits like days to first flower initiate, days to 50%
flowering, days to maturity, plant height, number of secondary branches per plant,
number of pods per plant and harvest index showed positive direct effect on seed
yield in timely sown condition, whereas, in late sown condition, days to 50%
flowering, plant height, 100-seed weight, number of pods per plant, harvest index,
relative water content and membrane stability index had positive direct effect on seed
yield. That may be helpful in selection of genotypes for further breeding programs.
The genetic divergence studies, grouped 50 genotypes into 16 cluster in
timely sown condition and 9 cluster in late sown condition. In timely sown condition,
maximum inter cluster distance was recorded between cluster II and X while, in late
sown condition, maximum inter cluster distance was recorded between cluster IV and
IX. So, genotypes present in these clusters may be used in hybridization programs to
obtain highly segregates.
High variations were observed for heat tolerance index (HTI) and heat
susceptibility index (HSI) in present study. The genotypes RSGD 1164 showed high
HTI value and genotype GP 238 showed low HSI value so considered as heat tolerant
genotype and suggested to utilized as promising breeding material for the
development of a new set of heat tolerant chickpea lines.
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Citation
Singh, Ajay 2022. Genetic Variability and Character Association Studies in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) . M.Sc. Thesis, College of Agriculture, Agriculture University, Jodhpur