Divergence for nutritional traits in cultivated and wild pigeonpea genotypes from India and Africa

The untapped divergence of pigeonpea has remained unutilized for ages. Pigeonpea is an important natural resource with a great divergence that can be explored in the field of sustainable agricultural development. This study was undertaken to assess the nutritional divergence available in 104 cultivated and wild pigeonpea genotypes from India and Africa. Pigeonpea is studied to identify suitable genotypic groups to enhance nutritional traits for future breeding programs. Genotypes of pigeonpea exhibited highly significant differences in terms of seed iron and, zinc concentrations, protein content, phytic acid levels, lipid content, moisture content, fiber content and seed weight. Our D2 analysis grouped 104 different pigeonpea accessions into eleven clusters. Five of the eight characters including seed phytic acid levels, iron, fiber, lipid and protein contents were the predominant characters that contributed towards the pigeonpea's total divergence. Cluster II exhibited the maximum seed iron concentration. Cluster IV exhibited the maximum seed zinc concentration, lipid and moisture content; it exhibited the least phytic acid and fiber content which is desirable with regards to the bioavailability of iron and zinc. The accessions in clusters II, III, IV, V and XI are diverse and have desirable content levels of traits found beneficial for enhancing seed iron and zinc concentrations in pigeonpea. A D2 analysis revealed that Indo‐African C. cajan, C. platycarpus and R. rothii had the maximum mean seed iron concentration and R. bracteata had the maximum mean seed zinc concentration. The promising genotypes identified in the present study can contribute towards selecting suitable starting material for biofortification in pigeonpea improvement programmes.