Population structure of F3 soybean lines based on agronomic characters.

Observation of agronomic traits is crucial in plant breeding programs to develop high yielding varieties. High yielding varieties can be a solution for the low productivity of domestic soybeans. This study aimed to determine the agronomic traits of F3 generation soybean derived from high yielding small-seeded soybean genotype (UM 6-1) with large-seeded soybean variety (Grobogan). The agronomic data were analyzed using principal component analysis and cluster analysis. The highest influential characters were the seed yield per plant and the number of seeds per plant based on the first and second main components. The number of unfilled pods was the least prominent because its contribution to the main component was smallest than other characters. Plant height, number of branches, number of productive nodes, number of filled pods, number of seeds per plant had a similar contribution to the population structure. The UM 6-1/Grobogan lines were divided into 5 clusters. Cluster 1 did not have a character with high value. Cluster 2 had a high number of unfilled pods and 100-seed weight. Cluster 3 had high 100-seed weight. Clusters 4 and 5 had high values for six characters. Every cluster is attributed to some dominant characters that developed the cluster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]