Genetic divergence analysis in groundnut (<em>Arachis hypogaea </em>L.)

Abstract

Genetic diversity among RILs of groundnut were estimated using Mahalanobis D 2 statistic for seventeen characters. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the RILs for all characters. Based on Tocher's method, 149 RILs were grouped into fifteen clusters. Cluster II was the largest, holding 40 RILs followed by cluster I (34 RILs), cluster IV (14 RILs), cluster VI (14 RILs), VIII cluster (10 RILs), cluster V (7 RILs), cluster VII (6 RILs), cluster X (6 RILs), cluster IX (4 RILs), cluster XIII (4 RILs), cluster XI (3 RILs), cluster XIV (3 RILs), III cluster (2 RILs). Whereas cluster XII and XV were unique with only one RILs in each. This grouping indicated considerable diversity among the RILs. Cluster III had RILs with desirable characters like number of kernels per pod, 100-kernel weight, kernel yield per plant and biological yield per plant. Similarly, other clusters like VIII and were also possessed different character combinations. Intra-cluster distance was highest for cluster VI while inter-cluster distance between cluster III and cluster VII was maximum, indicating the existence of high variability within and between clusters.