Screening of Indian bean germplasm for photoperiod responsive flowering and growth habit under natural condition

Domestication of Indian bean has realized the importance of photoperiod responsive flowering and growth habitfor its cultivation. The crop is underutilized and has been outlooked for research despite being immense potential to serve as nutritious like other legumes. In the present study, an attempt has been made to categorize individuals from segregating RIL population for photosensitivity and growth habit by making cross between two extreme phenotypes for this character viz., GNIB-21 (used as female) and GP-189 (used as male). While studying 123 individuals from F3:4 and F4:5 generations, it was observed that there were 58 determinate plants in F3:4 generation, out of which, 56 were photo-insensitive while 2 were photosensitive. Sixty five plants were indeterminate, out of which, 39 were photo-insensitive and 26 were photosensitive. For F4:5, 63 were determinate (36 photo-insensitive + 27 photosensitive) and 60 were indeterminate where 54 were photosensitive and only 6 were photo-insensitive. This has depicted that most of the photo-insensitive RILs showed more frequency of determinate plants as compared to indeterminate. However, the majority of photosensitive plants were indeterminate in growth. This study could be helpful for breeder to frame research upon this aspect in Indian bean and delineating such important traits for assisting in germplasm conversion.