Genetic Divergence among Mungbean Genotypes

Mungbean (Vigna radiata L.) is one of the important legumes and a well-known economic crop in tropical and subtropical countries. It belongs to the family Leguminosae with diploid chromosome number 2n = 2x = 22. (Smart 1990).and is native to Indo-Burma (Myanmar) region of Asia. The primary gene center of diversity for mungbean was suggested to be the central Asian region (Vavilov, 1951) with India as the gene center and probable center of domestication (Smartt, 1985).So India is considered as its land of origin (Loh and Stacey, 2003). It has several synonyms like greengram, moong, goldengram, oregon pea, chickasono pea, chickasaw pea and chiroko It is short-stature, less than 1.25 m, depending on the variety and growing conditions (Watt et al. 1977). It is a pulse or food legume crop used primarily as dried seed and occasionally as forage or green pods and seeds for vegetables (Lawn 1995). On a dry-weight basis it contains 25 to 28% protein, 1.0 to 1.5% fats, 3.5 to 4.5% fiber, 4.5 to 5.5% ash and 60 to 65% carbohydrate (Lawn and Ahn, 1985).