Assessment of Genetic Diversity in Cluster Bean [Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L.) Taub]

Background: Twenty six genotypes of cluster bean [Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L.) Taub] were evaluated under randomized block design with three replications under the field condition to estimate the range of variability and diversity present in cluster bean genotypes for fifteen yield and yield contributing traits. Methods: The experiment was carried out at Research Farm, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, N. M. College of Agriculture, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari, Gujarat in the year 2020 on twenty-six genotypes of cluster bean. Result: Correlation coefficients of fifteen traits estimates indicated positive and highly significant correlation of seed yield per plant with pods per plant, pods per cluster, pod yield per plant and seeds per plant, so these characters should be considered for selection for increasing yield in cluster bean. Gum content was negatively and significantly correlated with days to 50% flowering, seed yield per plant and 100 seed weight at genotypic level hence, selection for gum content might not be desirable for test seed weight and seed yield. Principal component analysis revealed significant variation among traits evaluated with the five principal components explaining approximately the 75.8% of the total variation with ³1 eigen values. Most of the variation contributed by the pods per cluster, pods per plant, gum content, pod yield per plant and seed yield per plant, these traits should be considered while selecting the cluster bean genotypes. The PCA- biplot revealed GAUG-1305, GG-1801, RGC-936 and RGC-986 as the most diverse genotypes for various traits. Cluster analysis distributed 26 cluster bean genotypes into three different clusters by UPGMA method. In the present investigation, the genotype GAUG-1305 recorded higher pods per plant, while GAUG-1502 for higher pod yield per plant, the genotype RGC-1003 for high pod length and RGC-936 exhibited higher pods per cluster, seeds per pod and seed yield per plant. So, these genotypes could be used in the future breeding programs.