Genetic studies in mungbean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek]

Abstract

To study the genetics of seven agronomic and physiological characters (total dry matter (TDM), number of pods per plant, seed weight per plant, 100-seed weight, number of seeds per pod, pod length and root length density) which were correlated with yield, eight crosses of mungbean were made, and the agronomic and physiological characters were evaluated in the six basic generations (P1, P2, F1, F2, BC1 and BC2) of each cross. It was found that most characters including TDM, number of pods per plant, seed weight per plant and root length density showed additive, dominance and epistatic gene effects, except for 100-seed weight, number of seeds per pod and pod length. One hundred-seed weight and number of seeds per pod possessed only additive gene effects, while pod length was controlled by both additive and dominance gene effects. The duplicate epistasis revealed the presence of a large number of non-additive gene actions controlling TDM, number of pods per plant, seed weight per plant and root length density that may hinder the improvement of these characters, and confirmed that selection of these characters in later generations would be more feasible.