Assessment of Field Pea (Pisum sativum var. arvense) Genotypes for Morphological Traits, Quality Traits and Molecular Characterization using SSR Marker

Background: Field pea is an important cool season grain legume crop. This study was conducted on field pea to explore phenotypic and molecular diversity among field pea genotypes, catering to current and future crop improvement. Methods: In this investigation forty-six genotypes of field pea were evaluated in randomized block design to assess phenotypic diversity for morphological and quality traits, alongside molecular characterization using simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Result: Variability analysis displayed substantial variability for all traits among test genotypes. Cluster analysis grouped the all genotypes into three distinct multi-genotypic clusters with clusters II and III having highest inter-cluster distance. Molecular characterization revealed the detection of 43 repeatable alleles by 14 polymorphic SSR markers, spanning a size range of 150 bp (AA122) to 970 bp (AA504), with a maximum of 4 fragments intensified by AD147, D21, AA504, AA122 and A9. Utilizing Jaccard dissimilarity coefficients and UNJ methods, all forty-six genotypes were grouped into three clusters. This study on field pea facilitates the identification of diverse parent selections capable of producing desirable segregants in future breeding programs.