GENETIC DIVERGENCE STUDIES IN VEGETABLE COWPEA [Vigna unguiculata ssp. sesquipedalis L. Verdc.]

B. LOVELY¹*, D.S. RADHADEVI², VIJAYA RAGHAVA KUMAR^3
1Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram, 695522, Kerala, India
²Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram, 695522, Kerala, India
³Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram, 695522, Kerala, India
* Corresponding Author : lovelybethel@yahoo.co.in

Received : 07-08-2017     Accepted : 22-08-2017     Published : 28-08-2017
Volume : 9     Issue : 8       Pages : 296 - 297
Genetics 9.8 (2017):296-297

Keywords : Vegetable cowpea, Genetic Divergence, Clusters
Academic Editor : Dr S B Singh, Dr J Ramachandran
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : The first author is grateful to Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR, India) for granting the Junior Research Fellowship for PhD programme
Author Contribution : All authors equally contributed

The investigation was conducted to study the nature and magnitude of genetic divergence among fifty genotypes of vegetable cowpea collected from different agro climatic regions of South India. The data were recorded on nine important traits among all the genotypes. All the genotypes were grouped into four clusters with genotypes from different geographic locations being grouped in the same clusters. The cluster I had the highest number of genotypes. The genotype VS41 remained in a solitary cluster as a divergent genotype that cannot be accommodated in any of the clusters. Pod yield per plant contributed the maximum towards divergence.

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