Multivariate analysis on blackgram genotypes for bruchine ( Callosobruchus maculatus F.) resistance towards selection of parental lines Ragul Subramaniyan National Pulses Research Centre, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Vamban - 622303 (Tamil Nadu), India Manivannan Narayana * Centre for Plant Breeding and Genetics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore - 641003 (Tamil Nadu), India Iyanar Krishnamoorthy Department of Millets, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore - 641003 (Tamil Nadu), India Ganapathy Natarajan Department of Agricultural Entomology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore - 641003 (Tamil Nadu), India Karthikeyan Gandhi Department of Plant Pathology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore - 641003 (Tamil Nadu), India *Corresponding author. Email: nm68@tnau.ac.in Article Info https://doi.org/10.31018/ jans.v13i4.2997 Received: September 4, 2021 Revised: October 23, 2021 Accepted: October 27, 2021 This work is licensed under Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). © : Author (s). Publishing rights @ ANSF. 1206 - 1213 ISSN : 0974-9411 (Print), 2231-5209 (Online) journals.ansfoundation.org Research Article INTRODUCTION Blackgram [Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper] is one of the important pulse crops of India. India is the largest pro- ducer and also consumer of blackgram. It is referred to as the “king of the pulses” due to its delicious taste and numerous other nutritional qualities. It is also popular for its fermented foods in Southern India. In India, the area that comes under blackgram is about 4.50 million hectares with a production of 2.83 million tonnes (Anonymous, 2019). Among various biotic and abiotic yield limiting factors, storage pests that feed on seeds have always been one of the most important biotic con- straints for the crop and cause severe economic loss during post-harvest storage. The net quantum of productivity and its economic value is constantly being affected by the storage pests, especially the storage pest bruchine (Callosobruchus sp.) (Swella and Musho- bozy, 2009). Bruchine infestation primarily starts in the field condition and carry over into the storage condition where the seeds are completely damaged within 2-3 months. Damaged seeds lose their seed weight as well Abstract Black gram (Vigna mungo (L.) Hepper) is one of the most important pulse crops in daily diets. However, black gram production and post-harvest preservation are still tedious due to the losses caused by the storage pest bruchine, Callosobruchus macula- tus (F.), both quantitatively and qualitatively. Hence, the present study involves the utilization of the multivariate analysis by effectively understanding variation among the genotypes based on their level of bruchine infestation. The multivariate studies indicated that the traits viz., the total number of adult emergence (AE), seed damage % (SD) and seed weight loss % (SWL) had more variation and with more significant correlation among them. Also, these traits are the most influential principal compo- nent traits governing 88% of the variation among genotypes. The divergence analysis showed that the genotype TU 68 found in cluster II would have the potential to create the variation for bruchine infestation among the black gram genotypes involved in the study. As it has scored lesser adult emergence (AE) (7 adults), seed damage % (SD) (14 %) and seed weight loss % (SWL) (17.79 %) than the other genotypes. It shows the resistant nature of the genotype against bruchine beetles. Hence, TU 68 could be utilized in the future hybridization programme as a donor for bruchine resistance. Keywords: Association, Blackgram, Bruchine, Cluster, PCA, Resistance How to Cite Subramaniyan, R. et al. (2021). Multivariate analysis on blackgram genotypes for bruchin (Callosobruchus maculatus (F.)) resistance towards selection of parental lines. Journal of Applied and Natural Science, 13(4), 1206 - 1213. https://doi.org/10.31018/ jans.v13i4.2997