ABSTRACT
Fava bean (Phaseolus lunatus L.) has great potential for the supply of vegetable protein, but its cultivation is still of little relevance when compared to common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.), being, in most cases, intercropped with other crops. The preservation of its genetic variability in germplasm banks, as well as the study of its genetic dissimilarity, has been helping in strategic design for improvement of the crop. The objective of this work was to characterize the genetic variability of morphoagronomic characters and to quantify the genetic dissimilarity among Fava bean accessions by multivariate analysis. Eight accessions from the Active Fava Bean Germplasm Bank of the Federal University of Piauí were evaluated through a randomized complete block design, with four replications, based on the number of days to maturation (NDM), mean pod length (CV), mean pod width (LV), mean pod thickness (EV), number of seeds per pod (NSV), weight of one hundred seeds (P100S) and productivity (PROD). Among the traits evaluated, only CV showed no genetic variability among the accessions. The analysis of divergence showed accessions UFPI 799 and UFPI 817 as the most divergent in relation to the others. The grouping method of Tocher and UPGMA allowed the formation of three groups. Singh's method indicated that LV, PROD and P100S contributed the most to the genetic divergence between the evaluated accessions. The accessions UFPI 817 and UFPI 797 can be used in crossings, as they are genetically distant and complementary in their characteristics.
Keywords:
Phaseolus lunatus L; Multivariate analysis; Genetic variability; Germplasm
