Genetic diversity analysis for physiological, reproductive, biochemical and yield traits of blackgram (Vigna mungo L.) genotypes under high temperature stress.

In the present study, 30 blackgram genotypes were evaluated for physiological, reproductive, biochemical and yield traits at flowering stage during summer, 2022 and 23. ANOVA showed highly significant genetic variability among the 30 blackgram genotypes for 20 heat tolerance traits studied indicating that significant amount of genetic variability among the genotypes. Higher PCV, GCV and heritability was recorded for seed yield per plant and number of pods per plant during both the years. Moreover, the results of cluster analysis for these heat tolerance traits revealed that the genotypes TBG-129, LBG-1015, PU-1804, TBG-104 and PU-31 were identified as promising genotypes under high temperature stress conditions during both the years. Principal component analysis showed that first three components showed 82.62 % of total variation during summer, 2022, whereas 77.06 % of the total variance was covered by the first two principal components during summer, 2023. The identification of genotypes displaying heat tolerance can be useful in future breeding programmes for the development of heat stress tolerant genotypes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]