Study of variance, heritability and genetic advance for various yield contributing and quality traits in spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to study the coefficient of variance, heritability and genetic advance for different traits in spring wheat .The investigation comprised of 7 lines of wheat and their 21 crosses in half diallel fashion was carried out in RBD with three replications. Data were recorded for days to 75% heading, days to maturity,plant height, number of productive tillers per plant, spike length, number of spikelets per spike, number of grains per spike, grain weight per spike, 1000-grain weight, biological yield per plant, harvest index, grain yield per plant, protein content and sedimentation value. The mean squares of the analysis of variance revealed significant and highly significant differences among genotypes for characters studied. Both PCV and GCV (21.8% and 21.3%) were highest for biological yield per plant followed by grain yield per plant (20.9%) and harvest index (19.7%) respectively. Whereas, ECV was maximum (15.2%) for grain yield per plant followed by harvest index (12.2%) and lowest value was recorded for days to 75% heading (0.85%). Days to 75% heading was highly heritable (90.94%) trait followed by plant height (87.23%) while least heritability (17.73%) was noticed for number of grain per spike. The highest genetic advance shown by the biological yield per plant (48.33g) followed by grain yield per plant (19.75g), however, the greatest genetic value percent mean 43.084 for the days to maturity and minimum (2.10) for spike length. Hence, these statistical parameters might be given top priority to strengthen the successful breeding program.