Estimation of genetic divergence in garden pea (Pisum sativum var. hortense L.) germplasm to facilitate the selection of potential parents for hybridization programme

Genetic divergence in the 54 genotypes of pea was worked-out using Mahalanobis’s D² statistics to identify the potential parents to be involved in the hybridization programme so that superior segregants can be selected in the segregating generations. On the basis of performance of various traits, 54 genotypes of pea were grouped into four clusters and maximum number of genotypes was accommodated in cluster II. The average intra-cluster distance was found maximum in cluster II and minimum in cluster III. Inter-cluster distance was maximum between cluster II and III indicating that hybridization between genotypes from cluster II and III can be utilized for getting the superior recombinants in segregating generations. Furthermore, on the basis of cluster means for various traits studied, cluster II was found superior for number of pods per plant, pod length, number of seeds per pod, shelling percentage, pod yield, total sugars and total soluble solids, whereas cluster III was found superior for plant height and total phenols. Hence, hybridization between parents from cluster II and cluster III for these characters may produce new recombinants with desired traits in the segregating generations which can be further purified by various plant breeding schemes.