Genetic Analysis in Pre-breeding Lines of Greengram [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek]

Abstract

Background: Greengram is third most important pulse crop which is widely adapted and can improve soil fertility. The genetic variability and association studies help in selection which would increase the yield potential of greengram. Methods: Two hundred stabilized lines (F9) obtained from the cross VBN (Gg) 2 and Vigna radiata var. sublobata were evaluated. The yield and yield contributing traits were recorded to evaluate genetic variability, heritability, genetic advance as % of mean and correlation among the yield and its component traits. Result: Analysis of variance exhibited significant differences among the lines for all the ten quantitative traits indicating the presence of genetic variability. The high GCV values were found for the traits viz., single plant yield (30.18) and the number of pods per plant (26.80). High heritability combined with high genetic advance as per cent of mean was observed for the number of pods per plant (90.19, 52.43), single plant yield (89.58, 58.84), the number of pods per cluster (79.28, 22.70) and the number of clusters per plant (69.50, 30.22) which indicates additive gene effects. In the present study, the number of pods per plant had a high positive direct effect (0.919) on a single plant yield. Therefore, the selection for these characters would improve yield in greengram.