Genetic Diversity Studies in Soybean [Glycine max (L.)Merrill] Genotypes

Abstract

Genetic diversity among 20 soybean genotypes was worked out using Mahalanobis D2 statistic. On the basis of genetic distance, the twenty genotypes were grouped into 5 clusters. Out of the 20 genotypes cluster II has the highest genotypes (9) followed by cluster III (4), cluster I and cluster IV (3 each) and cluster V had 1 genotype. The inter cluster divergence was observed to be highest between Cluster I and Cluster IV indicating that these two clusters were genetically diverse. Hence, the genotypes of Cluster I and Cluster IV could be utilized in hybridization program to achieve greater variability in the segregating generations. Among the different characters studied test weight followed by plant height, number of pods per plant and days to 50% flowering contributed maximum towards divergence.