Genetic diversity among induced mutants of grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L.)

Introduction Knowledge about genetic diversity is a prerequisite of any breeding programme. Inclusion of diverse parents in hybridisation programmes serves the purpose of combining desirable genes in new recombinations. Mahalanobi’s D statistic (7) is a powerful tool in quantifying the degree of divergence at genotypic level. Several workers have used this method to quantify the degree of divergence based on phenotypic observations in different crops . These studies have shown that accessions from the same geographical region may differ genetically as well as phenotypically and also in adaptability. In the present study, this analysis was used to determine the divergence among 81 induced mutants and 6 parental lines of grasspea (Lathyrus sativus L.).