Genetic variability of some agronomic traits in the Iranian Fenugreek landraces under drought stress and non-stress conditions

Davoud Sadeghzadeh-Ahari¹*, M. R. Hassandokht², A. K. Kashi², A. Amri³ and K. H. Alizadeh¹

¹Dry land Agricultural Research Institute (DARI), Maragheh, Iran.

²University College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran.

³International Center of Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), Aleppo, Syria.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: ds_ahari@yahoo.com.

Accepted 22 September, 2009

   Abstract

This study was carried out to assess the genetic diversity and heritability of various agronomic traits using twenty fenugreek landraces from Iran. The trial was conducted at Maragheh experiment station in North-west of Iran under rainfed (RF) and irrigated (IR) conditions during 2008 cropping season. Results of combined analysis of variance showed significant differences among landraces for all traits except for harvest index under rainfed conditions and in number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant and dry biomass under irrigated conditions. The highest phenotypic and genotypic variances are found for grain yield under rainfed conditions and plant type and growth habit in both rainfed and irrigated conditions. The highest heritabilities were shown by thousand kernel weight, days to flowering and plant type under both rainfed and irrigated conditions. Cluster analysis allowed to classify the landraces into similar four groups for rainfed and irrigated conditions.

Key words: Fenugreek, landrace, heritability, variability, agronomic traits.