Journal of Agricultural Science and Food Research
Open Access

Abstract

Genetic Diversity and Character Association for Yield and Yield Related Traits in Soybean (Glycine Max L.) Genotypes

Diriba Beyene Goonde*, Negash Geleta Ayana

The objectives of the study were to evaluate genetic diversity, heritability and genetic advance of traits in soybean
genotypes and to estimate the magnitudes of associations among the different traits. The experiment was carried out
at Uke Research Site, Western Ethiopia during 2018 main cropping season. The materials consisted of 100 soybean
genotypes and was laid out in10*10 simple lattice design. Agronomic traits were collected and statistical analysis
was carried out using GLM procedure of SAS (SAS, 2004). The results showed that there were highly significant
differences among the genotypes for all the traits except for number of primary branches per plant and number of
nodules per plant. High genotypic and phenotypic coefficients of variations (greater than 15%) were observed for
number of primary branches per plant, number of pods per plant, biological yield and seed yield. Higher values of
broad sense heritability estimates (greater than 60%) coupled with higher values of GAM (greater than 20%) were
observed for days to50% emergence, grain filling period, biological yield, and seed yield indicating the possibility of
the traits controlled by additive gene types and phenotypic selection for the traits could be useful. Both at genotypic
and phenotypic levels, seed yield was highly and positively correlated with days to 95% maturity, plant height,
number of primary branches per plant, number of pods per plant, biological yield and harvest index. Hence, indirect
selection using these traits might improve the seed yield in present soybean populations. D2 statistics showed that
the genotypes were clustered in to 10 diverse groups, indicating further genetic diversity in the genotypes. The
principal component analysis revealed that the first four PCA have accounted for 61.96% of the total variation
among the genotypes. In conclusion, there is sufficient genetic variability among the soybean genotypes which could
be used for selection based on phenotypes or use for parental stocks for crossing program.

Published Date: 2021-02-22; Received Date: 2021-02-01