Evaluation of Genetic Divergence in Spanish Bunch Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea Linn.) Genotypes

In our present study, we report the nature and degree of genetic diversity among 21 promising Spanish bunch groundnut genotypes of different agro-climatic regions, obtained from Directorate of Groundnut Research, Junagadh, Gujarat (India) during Kharif for 2015-16. The results obtained from analysis of variance showed that there was significant difference (P ＜ 0.05) between the genotypes in terms of days to first flowering, days to maturity, 100-kernels weight, shelling percentage, sound matured kernel, and pod yield. The recorded data matrix on seven morphological traits were employed for Non-hierarchical Euclidean cluster analysis based on square Euclidian distance by Un-weighted Paired Group Arithmetic Average method. The 21 genotypes were grouped into four distinct non-overlapping clusters in a random sequence, indicating the presence of high dimension of genetic diversity. Pod yield as an economically important trait was found to be the key contributor towards the genetic divergence followed by days to maturity. Based on magnitude of divergence and performance towards yield and yield attributes, five genotypes (TG-75, AK-343, ICGV-07038, Girnar-3 and TCGS-1157) were selected for exploitation as parents in future breeding programs. Based on high yielding genotypes and large inter-cluster distances, a trial on crossing of the genotypes from cluster II with the genotypes of clusters IV and III, genotypes from cluster I with II emphasizing on selected five genotypes could result in wide spectrum of promising genetic variability, aiming at enhancement of groundnut yield.