Genetic diversity and comprehensive evaluation of agronomic traits of chickpea resources from Iran

【Objective】In order to study the genetic diversity of agronomic traits of chickpea resources from Iran, evaluate them comprehensively and select the excellent resources which could be the theoretical basis and excellent resources for innovative utilization of chickpea and variety breeding.【Method】Twelve agronomic traits of 133 chickpea resources from Iran were analyzed by variation coefficient, genetic diversity index, correlation analysis, cluster analysis, principal component analysis and comprehensive D value analysis to select the major agronomic traits that could be used in comprehensive evaluation of chickpea, and screen for excellent resources.【Result】The coefficient of variation(CV) of 12 agronomic traits were 6.03% to 96.33%, of which the number of pods with no seeds per plant(NPNS) had the largest CV and the days from sowing to flowering period(DSFP) had the smallest CV. The Shannon diversity index of 12 traits were 1.4838 to 2.0716 with the average index of 1.8570, of which the number of seeds per pod(NSPP), hundred seeds weight(HSW), and DSFP were all higher than 2.0000, of which the NPNS, number of branches(NB), and number of branches with pods(NBP) were all lower than 1.7000. Cluster analysis showed that 133 chickpea resources could be clustered into seven groups, of which the groupⅠincluded one germplasm, with the characteristic of high yield and mid-early mature, groupⅡincluded one germplasm, with the characteristic of big seed, early-mature and high plant height, groupⅢincluded six germplasms, with the characteristic of late-mature and high plant height, groupⅣincluded fourteen germplasms, with the characteristic of small seed, groupⅤincluded five germplasm, with the characteristic of big pod, long flowering period and high yield, groupⅥincluded two germplasms, with characteristic of good consistency of flowering period and early-flowering, groupⅦincluded one hundred and two germplasms, with the characteristic of big pod and short plant height. Almost all the agronomic traits showed significant(P<0.05) or extremely significant(P<0.01) correlation with each other, of which the correlation index between days from sowing to first flower(DSFF) and days from sowing to flowering period(DSFP), between NB and NBP, and between yield per plant(YP) and yield per hectare(YH) were much higher than others. Principle component analysis showed that the cumulative contribution rate of the top six principal components(PC1-PC6) was 91.3798%. Main factors of PC1 were NPSP and NBP, that of PC2 was period of growth, those of PC3 were YH and YP, those of PC4 were days from first flower to flowering period(DFFP), that of PC5 was NSPP and that of PC6 was NPNS. A total of twenty six germplasms showed comprehensive scores D value over 0.5000, of which six resources had comprehensive scores D value over 0.6000, indicating these resources had fine comprehensive performance.【Conclusion】Chickpea resources from Iran perform well in genetic diversity. Twenty-six germplasm resources with better comprehensive characteristics are selected. Eight traits, including number of pods with seeds per plant(NPSP), NBP, DSFP, YP, DFFP, NSPP, NPNS, and PH can be main indexes for comprehensive evaluation of chickpea resources.