Genetic diversity in Bambara groundnut { Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.}

Abstract

Bambara groundnut is a grain legume with enormous morphological variability. In order to genetically establish the variation that exists in this crop, an assessment of genetic diversity was therefore carried out with 20 accessions of Bambara groundnut collected from International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) Ibadan. The design of the experiment was randomised complete block design with three replications. Results from analysis of variance (ANOVA), and principal component analysis (PCA) showed outstanding genetic diversity among the collections. The first four principal components accounted for 91.89% of the total variability. Cluster analysis and the dendrogram discretely grouped the accessions into four genetically distinct groups. One accession TVSU 353 singly formed a group in cluster analysis and dendrogram, which implies that TVSU 353 was genetically distinct from the rest of the accessions. Morphological characters assessed provided a useful measure of genetic differences among Bambara groundnut accessions, which can facilitate identification and selection of potential breeding lines for crop improvement as well as germplasm conservation.