GENETIC DIVERSITY ANALYSIS OF SOYBEAN (Glycine max L. Merr.)

Abstract

This research was conducted using twenty soybean genotypes to assess the performance of yield and yield related characters during early 2022 from February to May. Variance analysis exhibited highly significance of differences for all the studied parameters. Phenotypic coefficient of variation was found higher for all the character than the genotypic coefficient of variation, indicating the influence of environment on the trait expression. The rage of the heritability was from 23.74 to 97.77. High heritability associated with high genetic advance of percent mean was observed for no. of branches per plant, no. of pods per plant, no. of seeds per pod, dry stover yield (g/plant) and dry seed yield (g/plant); that indicating the existence of additive gene action and simple selection based on this trait is possible for future breeding program. Calculation of correlation of coefficient revealed that, the dry seed yield per plant (g/plant) had positive and significant correlation with plant height (G= 0.76, P= 0.67), no. of branches per plant (G= 0.51, P= 0.42), pod length (G= 0.70, P= 0.66), no. of pods per plant (G= 0.67, P= 0.55), no. of seeds per pod (G= 0.84, P= 0.31), hundred seed weight (g) (G= 0.88, P= 0.48), and dry stover yield (g/plant) (G= 0.97, P= 0.68). The path analysis revealed the days to maturity (0.119), pod length (cm) (0.071), no. of pods per plant (0.477), no. of seeds per pod (0.289), hundred seed weight (g) (0.381), and dry stover yield (g/plant) (2.826) had positive direct effect on dry seed yield. Through the multivariate analysis it was found that the twenty genotypes of soybean were clustered into three different cluster. Cluster three contained the maximum number of genotypes (9) which are G5, G7, G9, G12, G15, G17, G18, G19 and G20. While the lowest number of genotypes (4) was noted in cluster I including G1, G11, G13, and G14. Considering the magnitude of the cluster mean and agronomic performance of the soybean genotypes, from the cluster I, G2 (BD-2325) for minimum days for flowering, G3 (BD2326) for highest plant height, maximum number of pods per plant, and highest hundred

seed weight (g),

G4 (BD-2327) for minimum days for maturity, and G16 (BD-2341) for highest dry stover yield per plant. Besides, from the cluster II, G7 (BD-2331) was found to give maximum length of pod and highest dry seed yield of soybean. Therefore, considering the agronomic performance, these genotypes can be used as parent for desirable hybridization program of soybean in future.