Genetic diversity of country bean (Lablab purpureus) genotypes collected from the coastal regions of Bangladesh

Sixty one country bean genotypes collected from the coastal region of Bangladesh and were evaluated for the genetic divergence of yield and yield traits. Research method: Divergence analysis was performed by Mahalanobis D2 statistics using Genstat 4.2 program. Findings: The results of the univariate analysis revealed that country bean genotypes differed significantly for 12 yield and related characters. Multivariate analysis grouped 61 genotypes into eight clusters. Cluster II and IV comprised the minimum number (2) of genotypes followed by V (4). Cluster VII contained the maximum number (16) of genotypes and sub-divided into five subgroups. The highest inter-genotypic distance was observed between the genotype CB-32, and CB-109 (2.238), and the lowest inter-genotypic distance between the genotypes CB-016 and CB-017 (0.252). The inter-cluster distance (D2) was maximum between cluster I and V (22.15) followed by the distance between cluster IV and V (19.21). The highest intra-cluster distance (1.17) was observed in cluster V revealed the maximum heterogeneity, while the least variation (0.60) was noticed in cluster VI signifying the closeness of the genotypes. Data suggested that the pod length, pod width, and individual pod weight were major characters that contribute mostly towards genetic divergence. Both PC1-PC2 and PC1-PC3 biplot graphs clearly indicated that pod yield per plant had strong positive correlation with raceme per plant, pods per raceme, pods per plant, pod length and hundred seed weight. Limitations: There was no significant limitation to the report. Originality/Value: The genotypes from cluster I and V could be selected for future hybridization program.

Keywords:

Cluster analysis , hybridization , parent selection , PCA