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Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding, S.V. Agricultural College, ANGRAU, Tirupati-517 502.
A set of thirty one groundnut genotypes were assessed for genetic divergence during kharif season of 2023 using Mahalanobis D2 statistics with regards to pod yield, yield components and resistance to late leaf spot. Among the characters studied, the plant height contributed maximum towards the total divergence. The groundnut genotypes were grouped into 12 clusters using Tocher’s method of clustering. Among these 12 clusters, cluster I had maximum number of 13 genotypes followed by cluster II with 7 genotypes, cluster XI with 2 genotypes and the remaining clusters were solitary having only one genotype. Cluster XI had the maximum intra cluster distance followed by cluster I. The maximum inter- cluster distance was observed between cluster XI and XII followed by cluster IX and cluster XI. In order to get better segregants for yield and yield components and resistance to late leaf spot, taking into consideration the cluster distances and cluster means in the current experiment, the crossing between the genotypes from clusters IX and XI is rewarding.
KEYWORDS: Cluster means, genetic divergence, groundnut, late leaf spot (LLS), Mahalanobis D2 statistics.