Morphological Characterization, Variability and Diversity among Vegetable Soybean (Glycine max L.) Genotypes

Vegetable soybean production is dependent on the development of vegetable type varieties that would be achieved by the use of germplasm to evolve new agronomically superior yielding vegetable type with beneficial biochemical traits. This can be accomplished by a better understanding of genetics, which is why the research was conducted to reveal the quantitative genetics of vegetable soybean genotypes. Genetic variability of main morphological traits in vegetable soybean genotypes and their divergence was estimated, as a result of the magnitude of genotypic variation (GV), and phenotypic variation (PV) of traits varied among the genotypes. All traits showed high heritability (h²) associated with high genetic advance percentage mean (GAM). Therefore, these variable traits are potential for genetic improvement of vegetable type soybean. Genetic diversity is the prime need for breeding, and the magnitude of genetic diversity values were maximized among specific genotypes. Eight clusters were found for all genotypes; cluster VIII and cluster I were considered to have the most diversity. Cluster VIII consisted of two genotypes (GM-6 and GM-27), based on the mean outcomes of the high yield attributing traits. Hence, these two (GM-6, GM-27) genotypes can be advanced for commercial cultivation; furthermore, other genotypes can be used as source of breeding lines for genetic improvement of vegetable soybean.