KUMAR, MITHILESHNARAYAN, SHINDE ANAND2021-08-212021-08-212021M/ABMB/453/2019-20https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810174219The present study was undertaken with twenty-eight germplasm accessions of Cicer arientinum L. having different geographical origin, obtained from germplasm collections at T.C.A., Dholi, The experiment was carried out at T.C.A., Dholi Research Farm of Dr. R.P.C.A.U., Pusa, Samastipur, Bihar, in a completely Randomized Block Design with three replications during kharif, 2020-21 for molecular characterization and diversity analysis in chickpea. Data were collected for twelve characters viz., Plant height, Days to 50% flowering, No. of Pods per plant, Main root length, Main root girth, Root volume, Root dry weight, No. of nodule per plant, Nodule dry weight, 100 seed weight and yield per plant. Statistical analysis carried out were, Analysis of variance, genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation, heritability, genetic advance and molecular characterization. Analysis of variance showed highly significant differences among the genotypes for all the twelve characters under study. Maximum range was found for the No. of nodule per plant followed by Days to 50% flowering. The phenotypic coefficient variance (PCV) was greater than genotypic coefficient variance (GCV), heritability and genetic advance as percent of mean were observed highest for Root volume, Root dry weight, No. of Nodule per plant and Nodule dry weight indicating that these traits can be used as selection indices for yield improvement in drought condition. Seventeen SSR primer pairs for molecular characterization of 18 chickpea genotypes were used which has generated 116 total alleles out of which 45 are unique alleles in the form of amplified products. The PIC values revealing allele diversity and frequency among the chickpea genotypes varied from 0.593 in ICCM0178 to 0.859 in ICCM0190a. Among all the primers, seven primers showed highest polymorphism according to the PIC that are ICCM0010b, H1A19, H1G11, H2A02, H2E13, H2I10, ICCM0190a with the value 0.803, 0.846, 0.815, 0.815, 0.821, 0.834, 0.859 respectively. The polymorphism per cent of the primer ranges from 20% to 57.14% with lowest in H1009 and highest in H1A06 respectively. According to the cluster analysis and the principle coordinate analysis, the eighteen chickpea genotypes were differentiated into four groups. Cluster I had the 7 genotypes, cluster II had 2 genotypes, cluster III had 4 genotypes and last cluster IV had 5 genotypes.EnglishThesis