Genetic Variability Assessment among Elite Chickpea (Cicer arientinum) Genotypes Under Water Deficit Conditions

Abstract

Gene drift, recurrent selections, unintended ways during domestication and natural mutations had led to narrow genetic base of available chickpea cultivars. Exploration and employment of naturally occurring genetic variability is most basic requirement for a genetic improvement programs because it provides raw material to chickpea breeders. Limited progress for exploration of chickpea genetic variability has been done so far. Therefore, a research study involving 50 chickpea genotypes (46 elite breeding lines and 4 varieties) was carried out at Gram Breeding Research Station, Kallur kot, Pakistan under water stress conditions during 2021-22 crop season. Data were subjected to D² statistics, principle component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis. Through D² statistics, wide dispersion of data for range, standard deviation and coefficient of variation was found indicating that significant variability exists among genotypes in performance of different traits. PCA distinguished the genotypes into nine principal components on the basis of studied traits. PCA confirmed that first three components (PC1, PC2 and PC3) extracted >1 Eigen values indicating that the genotypes possess sufficient genetic variation. Cluster Analysis distributed the genotypes into four different groups. Dendrogram of agglomerative clustering on the basis of Euclidean distance illustrated that cluster-III and IV were more diverse. Mean performance of different traits in cluster analysis was evident that member of cluster-III (TGP-005, TGP-022, D-86030, D-88023, D-89033, D-04025, D-02055, D-02060, D-13031) possess high yield potential coupled with more diversity. Therefore, these genotypes may be favored while making selections for genetic variation and to accelerate the genetic advancement program.