INVESTIGATION OF GENETIC DIVERSITY IN CHICKPEA (Cicer Arietinum L.) GERMPLASM AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR GENETIC ADVANCEMENT PROGRAM

The present research study for investigation of genetic diversity of forty chickpea germplasm was carried out at Pulses Research Institute, Faisalabad, Pakistan during the rabi season of 2020-21. The data were subjected to D2 statistics, principal component and cluster analysis. D2 statistics measured coefficient of variation, range and standard deviation of different morphological characters of genotypes, showed significant value of variability. Five principal components (PCs) were extracted from the data by principal component analysis (PCA). Eigen values of first two components were recorded >1 indicating that these components have major share in genetic variability. Data also showed that number of pods plant-1 and 100 grain weight have highest positive contribution in construction of PC1 and PC2. Cluster analysis distributed the chickpea genotypes into four distinct clusters. Ward’s Dendrogram was constructed based on Euclidean distance for grouping of genotypes in clusters. It was noted that Cluster I revealed maximum Euclidean distance followed by cluster II. It was also recorded that the genotypes with higher yield potential were grouped in cluster II. Therefore the members of cluster II (D-00156, D-00170, D-00172, D-01017, D-02055, D-02060 and Bittle-16) possessing higher grain yield potential along with sufficient amount of genetic diversity may be incorporated in chickpea genetic improvement program.