Estimates of Genetic Divergence in Fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) germplasm

Abstract

The importance of fenugreek (Trigonella foenum-graecum L.) as a seed spice crop is significant as the seeds have medicinal, industrial and economical importance in India. The mode of pollination in fenugreek is self-pollination and germination of seed take place in hypogeal manner. The present study is essential to identifying genetically diverse genotype which will help in selecting parents in a hybridization program. In flower biology of fenugreek, the colour of flower is white and cleistogamous, inflorescence is racemose and flowers are bracteates, pedicellate complete, zygomorphic, bisexual and hypogynous. To identify genetically diverse genotype, an experiment was conducted with 38 genotypes in Randomized Block Design with three replications at instructional farm, college of agriculture, Jodhpur (Rajasthan) during Rabi 2024-25. Mahalonobis D2 statistics grouped 38 genotypes into 9 clusters in which maximum intra cluster distance was recorded in cluster IX and maximum inter cluster distance recorded between cluster II and VII and the percentage contribution towards genetic divergence was found high for oil content. The data collected from field trial on fenugreek for thirteen characters were statistically analyzed with the help of WINDOSTAT Version 9.3 software. The characters such as oil content, protein content, number of pods per plant, 1000-seed weight, plant height were the major contributing characters. Hence, these five characters are important and should be considered while selecting genetically diverse parents for any breeding programmes. The result concludes that among all the genotypes UM-3, AM-293, UM-19, AM-310, UM-9, UM-20 and UM-21 were found superior in seed yield per plant and for other characters also based on mean performance which would be used as parental source for future breeding programme.