CHARACTER ASSOCIATION AND MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF SOYBEAN (Glycine max (L.) Merrill)

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the research farm of Sheer-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207 to study character association and multivariate analysis of soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill) during December 2013 to April 2014 with 27 genotypes in randomized complete block design with three replications. Analysis of variance for each trait showed significance differences among the genotypes. Phenotypic coefficient of variation was close to genotypie coefficient of variation for all the character except number of seed per pod and number of branches per pod indicating the environmental influence on the expression of these characters. High heritability associated with high genetic advance in percent of mean was observed for stover yield, seed yield per plant, hundred seed weight, and single pod weight per plant indicated that selection for these characters would be effective. Seed yield per plant had highly significant positive genotypic and phenotypic association with stover yield, number of branches per plant, number of pod per plant revealing that selection based on these traits would ultimately improve the seed yield. Path coefficient analysis revealed that number of braehes per plant followed by stover yield had highest direct positive effect on seed yield. So, importance has to given for these characters in tiiture breeding programme to improve the yield in soybean. Multivariate analysis based on 12 characters indicated that the 27 genotypes were grouped into five distant clusters. The maximum contribution of characters towards diversity was observed by days to first flowering, number of pods per plant, yield per plant and pod length. Thus, these traits may be given high emphasis while selecting the line for hybridization. The inter cluster distance was maximum between cluster I and cluster IV. The highest intra cluster distance was found in cluster II followed by cluster I. From the results it can be concluded that G24 (13S-33), G2 (P1-4174-75), Gil (AUSTRALIA). G 13 (PK-327) genotype were identified as potential genotypes for higher seed yield in soybean.