Genetic Diversity and Nutritional Components Evaluation of Bangladeshi Germplasms of Kidney Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)

Considering the crucial focus on plant developments as high yielding, protein, and disease-resistant varieties, in this study, the genetic diversity and nutritional traits of available kidney bean germplasms found in Bangladesh have been evaluated based on seventeen quantitative and six nutritional traits. Analysis of genotypic, phenotypic variance and covariance showed that higher environmental influence was found in 1000-seed weight and seed yield/plant than other characters. High heritability was observed in dry weight (94.59%), leaf area (96.83%), days to 5 leaves stage (88.80%), number of leaves (87.38%) and number of pods per plant (87.32%), while high genetic advance was found in leaf area (59.46), 1000-seed weight (52.80), seed yield/plant (39.89). The genotypes were grouped in four clusters by diversity (D2) analysis where clusters I and III consisted of seven and one genotypes, respectively. Furthermore, the highest inter and intracluster distance was found between Cluster I and Cluster III (23.742) and cluster IV (0.900) respectively. Principle component analysis revealed that days to 5- leaves stage, days to 1st flowering and days to 50% flowering were major characters contributing towards genetic diversity (74.8%) in Kidney bean. Analysis of nutritional traits showed that the germplasms of the Sylhet region contained more carbohydrate (60.24-64.03%), fiber (2.08-2.46%) and ash (2.31-2.95%), whereas the germplasms of Bandarbanhad had more protein content (23.05-23.11%) than the released varieties used as control. In addition, the genotypes of the Sylhet region e.g. G6 (2.68t/ha), G5 (2.56 t/ha) and G4 (2.49 t/ha) showed maximum seed yield/ha. The results suggest that the germplasms of Sylhet and Bandarban could serve as valuable genetic resources to breed high yielding and super quality Kidney bean varieties.