بررسی تنوع ژنتیکی ژنوتیپ‌های مختلف نخود کفتری بانک ژن گیاهی ملی ایران با استفاده از صفات مورفولوژیک

Background and Objectives: Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millspaugh) is the sixth most important legume crop in the world. This plant is multi-purpose which is used as unripe seeds and pods, splits and fodder, it is also suitable for cultivation in tropical and subtropical regions and it is compatible with poor soil and dry areas. The seeds of this plant are rich in protein (containing more than 30 percentage of seed weight). In this study, the genetic diversity of different Pigeon pea genotypes has been investigated using morphological traits.
Materials and Methods: This study was carried out in order to investigate agronomic and morphological characteristics of different genotypes of pigeon pea collected from Sistan and Baluchistan province in 2019. 27 Agronomical and morphological traits related to leaves, flowers, pods and seeds were investigated in 30 different genotypes of pigeon pea available in the collection of the Iranian National Plant Gene Bank. the data were analyzed using SPSS and STAR statistical softwares. Correlation and principal components analysis were done and, cluster analysis was done by Ward's method for classifing genotypes.
Results: The results showed that the number of seeds per pod, number of secondary branches, and number of seeds per plant had the highest coefficient of variation, and among the investigated qualitative traits, the highest Shannon index was observed in the pod color, petal vein color, and seed color, respectively. Correlation analysis showed that there was a significant correlation between most of the measured traits. According to the results, the highest correlation was observed between the weight of the plant with the weight of pods and the number of days until the beginning of flowering with the number of days until maturity. In the cluster analysis, the 30 studied genotypes were divided into four main clusters at distance of five. The results of principal components analysis showed that five components which justified 89.4% of the variation. The biplot diagram obtained from the principal components for the evaluated traits was consistent with cluster analysis grouping. In this diagram, the four groups from the cluster analysis were well separated. totally, the results of principal component analysis and cluster analysis confirmed the existence of high genetic diversity between the studied genotypes.
Conclusion: The results of this research showed that different pigeon pea genotypes had a wide range of morphological characteristics, which shows the diversity and high genetic potential of this product. In this research, genotype 19, with 95 days, and genotype 23, with 193 days, were the earliest and the latest maturity genotypes. Genotype 5 had the highest amount with 230 pods per plant and genotype 30 had the lowest amount with 33 pods. Genotype 11 had the highest amount with 968 seeds per plant and genotype 30 had the lowest amount with 132 seeds.
By collecting different populations of this plant in the country and identifying its high genetic capacity, it can be used in the breeding programs and agricultural system of the country. Also, by considering that pigeon pea is one of the most drought-tolerant legumes and has eleven different maturity groups, it is possible to develop the feasibility of its cultivation in country