Dr. PRAKASH KERUREDr. SRINIVASA, VLATHA, G. K.2024-07-222024-07-222022-11-28https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810212321The present investigation was conducted on garden peas to characterize the diversity among 22 genotypes. The genetic diversity was assessed using morphological parameters and molecular markers (SSRs). Analysis of variance showed highly significant differences among the genotypes for all the characters under the study. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance as per cent over mean for all the characters studied except for days to first flowering, days to 50 per cent flowering, days taken for first picking and firmness suggesting that these traits can be improved through natural selection due to predominance additive gene action. In this study, five promising genotypes, viz., Arka Apoorva, Arka Sampoorna, Arka Tapas, IIHR-570 and IIHR-684, have been identified for higher yield, which can be utilized for the further crop improvement program. Agglomerative hierarchical cluster analysis grouped the tested germplasm into two major and five subgroups, while D2 grouped the test material into five clusters. The green pod yield per plant contributed the maximum towards the total genetic diversity, followed by total soluble solids and dehydration ratio. DNA polymorphism was utilized to cluster the genotypes into different clusters based on dissimilarity coefficients. Out of the 8 SSR primer pairs, three primers revealed polymorphic patterns, which resulted in the amplification of 6 putative alleles with an average of 2 alleles per locus. Polymorphic information content values ranged from as low as 0.09 to as high as 0.75. On the basis of SSR data, the dendrogram clustered 22 genotypes into two major groups based on tall and dwarf plant types. The dendrogram based on SSR markers showed no congruence with morphological data. Using molecular marker data, the garden pea genotypes were subdivided into tall and dwarf plant types, indicating that molecular markers are more reliable and authenticated for assessing genetic diversity.EnglishThesis