Estimation of Nature and Magnitude of Genetic Variability, Heritability and Genetic Advance for Yield and Its Contributing Traits in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Abstract

The present research investigation was conducted at AKS University, Satna, Madhya Pradesh during rabi Season of 2022.  Altogether 20 wheat genotypes were grown under RBD design with three replications. In the present study various parameters of genetic variability, broad sense heritability and genetic advance estimates of wheat crop. Analysis of variance revealed that the mean sum of square showed significant due to genotypes for all the 12 characters studied. Analysis of variance for the design of experiment revealed highly significant difference for all the characters which expressed huge amount of diversity among 20 genotypes of wheat. Phenotypic coefficients of variation (PCV) were higher than genotypic coefficients of variation (GCV) for all the characters. The maximum GCV and PCV were observed for ear length (cm) (26.37 & 27.04) followed by number of productive tillers per plant (23.72 & 25.65) and test weight (21.76 & 22.57 g). The maximum value of heritability was shown by number of spikelets per ear (98.05), number of seed per spike (97.59), ear length (95.12cm), test weight (92.99 g), biological yield per plant (91.99 g), plant height (89.86 cm), seed yield per plant (87.28 g), days to maturity (86.67) and number of productive tillers per plant (85.56). The highest genetic advance was found for number of productive tillers per plant (45.20), number of seed per spike (43.60), test weight (43.24 g), seed yield per plant (37.37 g), no of ears par plant (34.99) and number of spikelets per ear (31.49). High heritability coupled with high genetic advance for the characters number of productive tillers per plant, no of ears per plant, ear length, number of spikelets per ear, number of seed per spike, test weight and seed yield per plant which indicated that above characters were governed by additive gene action and direct selection may be useful for further improvement program.