Genetic diversity assessment of Indian chickpea varieties for protein and micronutrient composition

Abstract

To address the feasibility of developing protein rich and micronutrient dense varieties of chickpea, it is imperative to assess the existing variability of protein as well as micronutrients. The present efforts were made with 27 cultivars grown in India to ascertain the variability and diversity of these genotypes with respect to nutritive traits protein, iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu) and manganese (Mn). Among the varieties, Virat had higher concentration of protein, Zn and Mn; CSJ 515 had higher concentration of protein and Fe whereas, Kripa had higher concentration of Cu. Higher heritability with high genetic advance as per cent of mean was observed for Cu, Zn and Mn indicating that these traits are under additive gene action and selection pressure could effectively be applied for their improvement. With the genetic diversity analysis, it is inferred that crosses can be made between genotypes Virat with higher protein and Zn concentration from Cluster IV, Kripa in Cluster V with higher copper concentration, while CSJ 515 having high concentration of protein and Fe in Cluster III to realize better segregants for simultaneous improvement of more than one nutrient.

Keywords

• chickpea
• copper
• zinc
• iron
• manganese
• protein
• genetic improvement