Dissecting Genetic Variation and Associations in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) through Biparental Population Analysis

Abstract

Aims: The genetic variability in the germplasm collection has been used to create resistant cultivars to combat stresses that limit productivity due to linkage drag. North Carolina Design-III system is very effective in breaking undesirable linkage and creating genetic variability in a population. Study Design:  North Carolina Design-III was used for the experiment. Place and Duration of Study: The experiment was conducted at NEBCRC, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, between rabi 2020-21 to 2023-24. Methodology: The experiment developed a biparental population by crossing a high-yielding genotype GNG 2127 with a line P 13273 and evaluated them in RCBD with two replications. Results: The analysis of variance revealed that a significant difference was observed for the examined traits. The highest variance was found for a number of pods plant-1 followed by biological yield plant-1 and harvest index due to male, female and male-female interaction. The highest value of GCV and PCV was observed for biological yield plant-1 followed by a number of secondary branches plant-1, number of pods plant-1, harvest index and seed yield plant-1. The maximum value of heritability and genetic advance as a percent of the mean was recorded for the biological yield plant-1. Seed yield plant-1 showed a highly positive and significant correlation with traits viz., number of secondary branches plant-1, number of pods plant-1, biological yield plant-1 and harvest index. Path coefficient analysis exhibited a positive and direct effect for the number of pods plant-1 and harvest index and a low residual effect. Conclusion: The results showed a sufficient amount of variance for the studied traits that may be used to improve plant architecture and other traits in BIPs.