author(s)
Suman Parre, RS Raje, NK Singh and Joni Kumar

abstract
Genetic variability for morphological and biochemical traits related to pod borer resistance in pigeon pea [Cajanus cajan(L) Millspaugh] among 150 recombinant inbred lines was studied during Kharif season 2014-15 and 2015-16. Characters like pod length, peduncle length, petiole length, pod wall thickness and leaf thickness and biochemical traits like protein content, reducing and non-reducing sugars and phenol content in pod walls had been studied. Significant variability has been found among the recombinant inbred lines. A negative correlation has been found between phenol content with a percentage of pod damage and pod wall thickness. Remarkable genotypic differences were found for an overall resistance to pod borer and other related traits. The difference between phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) and genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) for the characters under study is very less indicating that the heritability for the characters under study is very high and additive gene action is predominant there. Influence of the environment is remarkably less. The genetic advance over the percentage of the mean was higher for all the characters under study except for reducing sugars. From the study it has shown that the higher the phenol content, lower the protein content and lower the total sugars more will be the resistance towards pod borer. Pod wall thickness showed negative correlation indicating that the pod wall thickness should be more in order to offer resistance to pod borer. Further studies showed that population under study had variability for morphological and biochemical attributes play a significant role in the selection of genotypes that offer resistance to Helicoverpa armigera (gram pod borer).