Deciphering Genetic Diversity in Grass Pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) Collections Using Agronomic and Forage Quality Traits and SSR Markers

Grass pea (Lathyrus sativus L.) is an important dual-purpose crop in drought and famine prone areas as it is used as human food as well as livestock feed and fodder. However, the variation for forage quality traits of grass pea remains largely unexplored. This study aimed to characterize the genetic diversity of grass pea collections from Africa, Asia, and Europe, and identify genotypes for superior agronomic and forage nutritional quality traits. The principal component analysis revealed that the first three principal components from nutritional quality parameters viz., NDF, ADF, cellulose, lignin and ash percent, and from agronomic traits viz., plant height, nodes per plant, leaf area, green and dry biomass accounted for the majority of the total variation. In addition, a total of ۵۹ polymorphic alleles were detected at ۱۱ SSR loci with an average of ۵.۳۶ alleles per locus and the polymorphic information content ranged from ۰.۴۹ to ۰.۷۶. Three accessions (IF۱۸۷۲, IF۲۱۷۷ and IF۲۱۵۶) with higher biomass than the check and four accessions (IF۱۳۲۷, IF۱۳۱۲, IL-۱۰-۷۶ and IF۱۳۰۷) with excellent nutritive value in both green forage as well as straw were identified. The present study revealed high genetic variation for biomass and nutritional quality traits in grass pea collections that could be useful for development of high-yielding, nutritionally rich, and dual-purpose varieties.

Keywords:

Dual-purpose crop , IVDMD , SSR markers , Straw quality , Trait-specific germplasm.