Evaluating Morphological Diversity of Pea Genotypes using Multivariate Analysis

Umair Hamza*1, Kashif Ali1, Hafiza Faiza Ghaus1, Zahid Akram1, Usama Waheed1 and Hadia Bilal1

1Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan

Abstract

Pea (Pisum sativum L.) is the second most economically essential winter legume in Pakistan. The yield potential of this crop is low in Pakistan contrary to other countries and little genetic diversity in the germplasm is the reason for it. This research was planned to determine the genetic diversity in pea genotypes. Twenty pea accessions collected from NARC and AARI were sown following the RCBD design in October 2022 at the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics. Data were collected for days to 50% flowering, pod length (cm), pod width (cm), yield per plant (g), plant height (cm), number of seeds per pod, hundred seeds weight (g), seed diameter (mm) and number of pods per plant. For estimating genetic diversity, analysis of variance and cluster analysis. Significant variation was exhibited by all the studied genotypes through analysis of variance. 8 clusters were formed during cluster analysis. The most diverse clusters were 1 and 8 for observed traits exhibiting that their enclosed genotypes showed maximum genetic diversity and these accessions could be resourceful for pea crop improvement. The least divergent clusters were 7 and 8, displaying that their members had very little genetic diversity. Through this study, it is viewed that a great range of genetic diversity is present in assembled accessions which may be used in the breeding of high-yielding pea cultivars.