Legume Research, 39 (2) 2016 : 189-193 AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION CENTRE

Print ISSN:0250-5371 / Online ISSN:0976-0571 www.arccjournals.com/www.legumeresearch.in

Genetic association studies for yield and yield related traits in pigeonpea
[Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.]
Praveen Pandey*, Rajesh Kumar and Vankat Raman Pandey
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding,
Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj, Faizabad-224229, India.
Received: 26-11-2014 Accepted: 13-09-2015 DOI:10.18805/lr.v0iOF.8604
ABSTRACT
Twenty three pigeonpea genotypes were evaluated in a randomized block design during Kharif 2012-13. The objective of
this research was to assess inter-relationships, direct and indirect effects among yield and its components for genetic
improvement of pigeonpea. The analysis of variance revealed highly significant differences for all characters under study
among the genotypes. Considering the correlation analysis biological yield/plant, pods/plant, 100-seed weight, harvest-
index and secondary branches/plant had highly significant positive correlation with seed yield. Path analysis identified
biological yield/plant followed by harvest-index, pods/plant, days to maturity, primary branches/plant 100-seed weight and
seeds/pod as most important direct yield components while biological yield/plant and harvest-index as most important
indirect components. Hence, these traits should be given much emphasis at the time of devising selection strategy to
achieve a quantum jump in pigeonpea yield.
Key words: Correlation, Direct-indirect effects, Pigeonpea, Yield and yield components.

INTRODUCTION replications for various physiological and agronomical traits

Pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.], is the
second most important pulse crop of India after chickpea. It
is a rich source of protein, carbohydrate, vitamins, lipids
and certain minerals. Compared to other food legumes
breeding in pigeonpea has been more challenging due to its
pollination behaviour and sensitivity to biotic and abiotic
stresses. Significant progress has been made over the last
few decades through breeding for reducing crop duration,
improving seed quality and overcoming the constraints of
major diseases like wilt and sterility mosaic.
Pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.], being often
cross pollinated has very high genetic variability but yield
potential of this crop is very low. Seed yield is very complex
character whose manifestation results from multiplicative
interactions of several yield components and environmental
factors. Improvement in yield primarily depends on the
magnitude and the nature of genetic variability present in
the population. The knowledge of character associations
between yield and its components might provide useful
information on nature, extent and direction of selection.
Keeping in view, the present study was conducted to study
inter-relationships among yield and its contributing traits and
also their contribution to yield directly as well as indirectly
through other traits in pigeonpea.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Twenty three pigeonpea genotypes (Table 1) were
evaluated in a randomized block design with three
*Corresponding author’s e-mail: pandeypraveen1986@yahoo.com.
at Research Farm of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Narendra
Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Kumarganj,
Faizabad during kharif 2012-13. The experimental site is
located at 26.47 oN latitude, 82.12 oE longitudes and an
altitude of 113 m above mean sea level. This site is in the
eastern Gangetic plains of India and has sandy loam soil
texture. Each genotype was raised in single row plots of 4 m
length with intra–row and inter-row spacing of 25 cm and
75 cm, respectively. The recommended agronomic practices
followed to raise good crop stand. The observations were
recorded on five randomly selected competitive plants of a
genotype in a plot in each replication for eleven characters
viz., days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, number of
primary branches/plant, number of secondary branches/plant,
plant height (cm), pods/plant, seeds/pod, 100-seed weight,
seed yield/plant (g), biological yield/plant (g) and harvest
index (%).The mean value were used to obtained analysis
of variance as per methodology advocated by Panse and
Sukhatme (1967). Correlation coefficient and path
coefficient was worked out as method suggested by Searle
(1961); Dewey and Lu (1959) respectively.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The analysis of variance revealed highly significant
difference for all characters, under study among the
genotypes, indicating that the parents included in this
investigation exhibit sufficient variability for the entire
characters study (Table 2). The presence of large amount of
190 LEGUME RESEARCH - An International Journal
Table 1: List of genotypes and their source/origin used in the Table 2: Analysis of variance of randomized block design for 11
experiment quantitative characters in pigeonpea
Genotypes Source/ origin Characters Source of variation
NDA 2 NDUAT, Faizabad, U.P., India Replication Treatment Error
NDA 3 NDUAT, Faizabad, U.P., India 2 22 44
NDA 3-3 NDUAT, Faizabad, U.P., India
NDA 5-14 NDUAT, Faizabad, U.P., India Days to 50 % Flowering 3.435 45.802** 1.621
NDA 8-6 NDUAT, Faizabad, U.P., India Days to Maturity 3.522 45.515** 2.082
NDA 96-1 NDUAT, Faizabad, U.P., India Plant Height (cm) 1.609 411.407** 9.705
NDA 96-6 NDUAT, Faizabad, U.P., India Primary Branches/ Plant 0.339 1.703* 0.646
NDA 98-6 NDUAT, Faizabad, U.P., India Secondary Branches/ Plant 12.192 101.907** 7.530
NDA 98-7 NDUAT, Faizabad, U.P., India Pods/ Plant 105.33 2245.566** 28.107
NDA 7-11 NDUAT, Faizabad, U.P., India Seeds/ Pod 0.024 0.345** 0.020
NDA 7-15 NDUAT, Faizabad, U.P., India 100-Seed Weight (g) 0.026 9.875** 0.061
NDA GC 31 NDUAT, Faizabad, U.P., India Seed Yield/ Plant (g) 3.399 494.780** 6.784
NDA GC 1010 NDUAT, Faizabad, U.P., India Biological Yield/ Plant (g) 80.46 4732.801** 71.474
ICP 2309 ICRISAT, Patancheru, A.P., India Harvest Index (%) 0.214 17.090** 0.684
ICP 2155 ICRISAT, Patancheru, A.P., India *,** significant at 5% and 1% probability levels, respectively
ICP 870 ICRISAT, Patancheru, A.P., India
ICP 7353 ICRISAT, Patancheru, A.P., India (0.929, 0.937), pods per plant (0.564, 0.589), 100-seed
IPA 208 IIPR, Kanpur, U.P., India weight (0.495, 497) and harvest index (0.474, 0.479).
Bahar RAU, Dholi, Bihar, India However, secondary branches per plant (0.250, 0.266)
Amar CSAUAT, Kanpur, U.P., India showed significant positive correlation with seed yield per
NDACMS 1-3A/B NDUAT, Faizabad, U.P., India
plant at both level. Thus selection for higher yield on the
NDACMS 1-4A/B NDUAT, Faizabad, U.P., India
basis of above characters would be reliable. These characters
NDACMS 1-6A/B NDUAT, Faizabad, U.P., India
have also been identified as strong associate of yield by
Sodavadiya et al.(2009), Kanade et al. (2010), Mittal et al.
variability might be due to diverse source of materials taken (2010) and Devi et al. (2012).
as well as environmental influence affecting the phenotypes.
Similar findings were also reported by Srinivas et al. (1999), Biological yield/plant showed significant positive
Basavarajaiah et al. (2000), Venkateswarlu (2001), Baskaran correlation with pods/plant (0.511, 0.487), 100-seed weight
and Muthiah (2006), Bhadru (2008), Bhadru (2011) and (0.440, 0.445), plant height (0.355, 0.374), secondary
Yerimani et al. (2013). branches/plant (0.309, 0.361) and seeds/pod (0.254, 0.249)
indicating that improvement in biological yield, if selection
Correlation coefficient analysis measures the mutual imparted may boost the per se performance of these
relationship between various plant characters and determines characters. Though, it exhibited significant and negative
the component characters on which selection can be based association with days to 50% flowering (-0.247, -0.268)
for genetic improvement in yield. A positive value of and days to maturity (-0.299,-0.332) indicating that the
correlation shows that the changes of two variables are in improvement in biological yield may hamper the per se
the same direction, i.e., high value of one variable are performance of these characters. Plant height possessed
associated with high values of other and vice-versa. When highly significant positive correlation with secondary
correlation is negative the movements are in opposite branches/plant (0.525, 0.603) and biological yield (0.355,
directions, i.e., high values of one variable are associated 0.375) indicating that improvement in plant height may
with low values of other. Breeder always concerned for the boost the per se performance of these characters but it
selection of superior genotypes on the basis of phenotypic exhibited significant and negative correlation with harvest
expression. However for the quantitative characters, index (-0.345, -0.410) indicating that improvement in plant
genotypes are influenced by environment, thereby affecting height may hamper the per se performance of harvest-index.
the phenotypic expression. Hence, information regarding the Days to 50% flowering recorded significant and negative
nature and extent of association of morphological characters correlation with 100-seed weight (-0.278, -0.301) and
would be helpful in developing ideal plant type, in addition biological yield/plant (-0.247, -0.268) indicating that
to the improvement of yield a complex character for which, selection for earliness may boost the per se performance
direct selection is not effective. of these characters; though it showed significant positive
The correlation coefficient between seed yield per association with days to maturity (0.714, 0.703). Similarly
plant and other quantitative attributing to yield (Table 3) secondary branches/ plant showed highly significant
showed that seed yield per plant was highly significantly positive correlation with pods/plant (0.358, 0.391) and
and positively associated with biological yield per plant biological yield/plant (0.309, 0.361). Harvest-index showed
Table 3: Estimates of correlation coefficients between 11 quantitative characters in pigeonpea
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*,** significant at 5% and 1% probability levels, respectively, rP = Phenotypic correlation and rG = Genotypic correlation
191
192 LEGUME RESEARCH - An International Journal
significant positive correlation with pods/plant (0.302,
0.325) and 100-seed weight (0.307, 0.318). Seeds/pods
showed highly significant and positive correlations with
biological yield (0.254, 0.249) and significant negative
correlation with 100-seed weight (-0.311, -0.343).The first
value representing phenotypic correlation and later genotypic
correlation. The above results in respect of correlation are
in conformity with the earlier reports of Baskaran and
Muthiah (2007), Sodavadiya et al.(2009), Kanade et al.
(2010), Mittal et al. (2010) and Devi et al. (2012).
Correlation coefficients between remaining 35 character
pairs out of a total of 55 character pairs were found to be
non-significant.
The estimates of genotypic correlation coefficients
between eleven characters showed close parallelism in
direction with their corresponding phenotypic correlation
coefficients. The genotypic correlations were, in general,
higher in magnitude than the corresponding correlations at
phenotypic level. The occurrence of negative correlation
indicates that an association of two characters is not only
due to genes but also due to their influence of the
environment. If relationship is due to manifold effect of gene
(s) it is difficult to separate these effects by selecting
Table 4: Direct and indirect effects of 10 quantitative characters on seed yield per plant in pigeonpea

particular character so related (Das et al. 1988). If correlation

is due to genetic linkage, it is possible to reserve the
association provided the linkage is not very close. It is
therefore important to establish the genetic basis of
correlation before launching any breeding programme.
Information obtained from correlation study does not give a
complete idea about the contributions of each component
character. As the correlation coefficient is not sufficient to
explain true relationship for an effective manipulation of the
character, path coefficient was worked out. Path coefficient
analysis is useful for partially direct and indirect causes of
correlation and also enables us to compare the causal factors
on the basis of their relative contributions.
Path analysis (Table 4) revealed that the highest
Residual effect = 0.0235, Bold figure indicate direct effects

positive direct effect on seed yield/plant was exerted by

biological yield/plant (0.8468) by followed harvest-index
(0.3190), pods/plant (0.0801), days to maturity (0.0419),
primary branches/plant (0.0392), 100-seed weight (0.0304)
and seeds/pod (0.0262). The remaining two characters
exhibited direct effects on seed yield/plant negatively.
Harvest index exhibited high order positive indirect effects
on seed yield/plant via biological yield/plant (0.1251) and
pods/plant (0.0260). Similarly biological yield/plant exerted
substantial positive indirect effects on seed yield/plant via
pods/plant (0.0410), 100-seed weight (0.0135) and primary
branches/plant (0.0105). Secondary branches/plant showed
substantial positive indirect effects on seed yield/plant via
primary branches/plant (0.0123). The rest of the estimates
of indirect effects obtained in path analysis were negligible.
The estimate of residual factors (0.0235) obtained in path
 Volume 39 Issue 2 (2016) 193
analysis was low. Similar findings were also reported by important associates of seed yield. Path analysis identified
Kanade et al. (2010), Mittal et al. (2010) and Devi et al. biological yield per plant followed by harvest-index, pods
(2012). per plant, days to maturity, primary branches per plant 100
CONCLUSION seed weight and seeds per pod as most important direct yield
Commencing the experimental results it may be contributing traits and pods per plant, 100-seed weight and
concluded that that substantial genetic variability was found biological yield per plant as most important indirect
in entire gene pool. Considering correlation study traits like; components which merit due consideration at time of
biological yield/plant, pods/plant, 100-seed weight, harvest- devising selection strategy aimed at developing high yielding
index and secondary branches/plant emerged as most varieties in pigeonpea.
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