Assessment of genetic variability at morpho-qualitative levels and molecular characterization of selected promising lines of field pea (Pisum sativum L. var. arvense)

A field study was conducted during the rabi season of 2023-24 at the Genetics and Plant Breeding Research Farm of Banda University of Agriculture and Technology, Banda, to characterize 30 diverse field pea (Pisum sativum L. var. arvense) genotypes at the phenotypic and molecular levels. The study utilized two replications in an alpha lattice design with four checks and investigated 16 morpho-qualitative characters. Analysis of variance revealed significant variability among genotypes, with traits such as plant height (PH), number of pods per plant (NPP), number of effective pods per plant (NEPP), biological yield per plant (BYP), seed yield per plant (SYP), total sugars (TS), non-reducing sugars (NRS), reducing sugars (RS) and trypsin inhibitor activity (TIA) showing high values of both phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation (PCV and GCV). These traits also exhibited high heritability and genetic advance as a percent of the mean (GAM), indicating additive gene effects and suggesting their suitability for effective selection. Eighteen field pea genotypes were molecularly characterized using 18 polymorphic SSR markers, revealing 36 alleles and indicating moderate genetic diversity. Primer AA-446 was the most informative, while AD-249 was the least informative. Cluster analysis grouped the genotypes into three distinct clusters and Principal Coordinate Analysis (PCoA) captured 43.36 % of the total genetic variation across the first two axes. These findings confirm sufficient diversity among genotypes for effective selection and future breeding programmes.