GENETIC VARIABILITY FOR GROWTH, YIELD, AND YIELD-RELATED TRAITS IN BLACKGRAM (VIGNA MUNGO (L.) HEPPER) GENOTYPES

Abstract

Blackgram (Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper) is an important legume crop extensively grown in Asia. It is one of the most abundant sources of protein, minerals, and vitamins. Studying genetic variability is an important task for genetic improvement of this crop. Ten blackgram genotypes were experimented on a randomized complete block design with three replications at Sundarbazar, Lamjung during July- October of 2019 to analyze their genetic variability. Plant height at maturity, days to 50% flowering, number of primary branches, branch length, number of pods bearing peduncles, the longest peduncle length, pod length, number of seeds per pod, 1000 seed weight, and grain yield per plant were significantly different between genotypes. BLG0076-2 had produced the highest grain yield per plant (6.19 g), followed by BLG0066-1-1 (5.42 g). The number of pods per plant had the highest genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) (37.30 %) and phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) (46.44 %), followed by the number of pods bearing peduncles (GCV: 34.47, PCV: 46.44). Heritability values for branch length (0.94) are the greatest, followed by seeds per pod (0.92). Genetic advance (GA) was the highest in branch length (20.68), followed by the number of pods per plant (19.79). Similarly, the number of pod bearing peduncles had the highest genetic advance as a percent of the mean (GAM) (66.10), followed by branch length (63.59). Cluster analysis revealed that cluster 2 and cluster 3 had the greatest distance between cluster centroids (24.99), indicating genetic dissimilarity. This study suggests that blackgram genotypes, namely BLG0076-2 and BLG0066-1-1 were potential germplasm for varietal improvement programs.

Keywords

• black gram
• cluster analysis
• grain yield
• heritability
• genetic variability