Genetic Variability, Heritability, and Genetic Advance in Mung Bean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek] Genotypes

Abstract

Assessment of genetic variability in crop species is one of the major activities to meet the diversified goals in plant breeding programs. However,  there is a lack of sufficient information on the genetic variability study of mung bean. Therefore, field experiment was conducted on sixty mung  bean genotypes with the objectives to assess the genetic variability, heritability, and genetic advance for desirable traits that have a vital role in  determining and designing breeding strategies. The experiment was conducted at Jinka Agricultural Research Center laid out in a 6 × 10 alpha  lattice design with two replications during the 2018 cropping season. The analysis of variance revealed highly significant (P≤0.001) differences for  most of the traits indicating the existence of high genetic diversity among the genotypes. High estimates of genotypic coefficient of variance (GCV)  and phenotypic coefficient of variance (PCV) was observed for harvest index (48.77% and 59.73%). The lowest GCV and PCV estimates were obtained  for days to flowering (3.26% and 6.82%), days to maturity (2.08% and 4.20%), seed yield per hectare (0.34% and 0.45%), and biomass yield per  hectare (0.08% and 0.13%). Terminal leaf length, terminal leaf width, peduncle length, plant height, number of primary branches per plant, seeds  per pod, seed yield per plant, hundred seed weight, seed yield per hectare, biomass yield, and harvest index exhibited high heritability values. High  heritability coupled with high GAM estimates was recorded for plant height, the number of primary branches per plant, hundred seed weight, and  harvest index. In general, the observed variability could help to develop breeding schemes for mung bean.