GENETIC VARIATION AND HERITABILITY OF SEEDLING TRAITS IN AFRICAN LOCUST BEAN -PARKIA BIGLOBOSA (JACQ.) R.BR. EX G.DON.

Twenty nine accessions of Parkia biglobosa collected across seven agro-ecological zones of Nigeria were studied for genetic variability, correlation and principal component analysis for thirteen important seedling traits. These were also classffied using cluster analysis. Wide variations were observed for all the characters indicating diverse genetic nature of the base population. The traits had high genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation. The estimates of PCV were higher than for GCV and ECV for nine characters, suggesting that these characters were relatively much influenced by the environment. High GCV estimates were observed for number of secondary leaves (NSL), average plant height (PH), and root fresh weight (RFW). Heritability was generally low with only NSL and PH having above fifty percent. These traits also had very high genetic advance values indicating that they are under the control of additive gene effects and may assist in identification of superior genotypes at early seedling stage. Significant positive correlation was found between PH and Cataphyll length (CL); also between CL, Number of leaves (NL), Number of primary leaves (NPL), and NSL. The first four principal components accounted for 84.55% of the total variation. Cluster analysis based on PCA grouped accessions into three clusters. Cluster 1 comprised of accessions predominantly from the Derived Savanna. Clusters 2 and 3 had a mixture of accessions from various zones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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