Multi-variate analysis in blackgram (Vigna mungo (L). Hepper) for diverse agro morphological traits

Fifty-two blackgram germplasm lines were evaluated for ten agro-morphological traits through multivariate analyses to estimate the genetic diversity, pattern of variation and relationship among tested individuals and their correlation analysis. First three principal components exhibited more than 1.0 eigen values and exhibited 65.0% total variability. Number of clusters/plant, number of pods/plant, number of seeds/pod and plant height had highest positive eigen vector value in PC1 indicated the large effect in the overall variation of genotypes. From the biplot, the characters viz., number of branches/plant, hundred seed weight, single plant yield, plant height, number of clusters/plant, hypocotyl colour and number of seeds/pod contributed to the maximum divergence. Five major groups were formed as clusters viz., I, II, III, IV and V consisting of 19, 2, 11, 2 and 18 genotypes, respectively. The genotypes from diverse clusters can be utilized for hybridization programs in blackgram.