II.33 Estimation of certain genetic parameters for yield and quality characters in induced barley mutants.
Rishi Muni Singh and Jagdamba Singh. Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding Faculty of Agriculture, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi221005, India.
The present investigation was undertaken to determine the magnitude and causes of variability of certain yield attributes together with grain protein of five gamma ray induced mutants along with control variety 'Amber' in M4 generation. The data on various genetic parameters for different characters are presented in Table l.
The estimates of genotypic coefficient of variability (GCV) were higher for plant height (22.10), number of spikelets/spike (23.41), number of grains/spike (20.12), yield per plant (23.59) and yield per plot (28.04). These characters also exhibited high phenotypic coefficient of variability (PCV). In general, for all the characters PCV values were slightly higher than the corresponding GCV values. Variability due to genotypic component indicates that there is adequate scope of selection for improvements in certain characters.
Heritability estimates were high for most of the characters (85.69 to 97.69%), but moderate for yield per plant (54.14) and low for number of effective tillers/plant (39.18).
Since, the efficiency of selection would depend upon the magnitude of variability that is heritable and caused by genetic factors, the higher values, therefore, of heritability accompanied by high genetic advance for the characters studied should be quite valuable. High heritability accompanied with high genetic advance expressed as percentage of mean was observed for plant height, spike length, number of spikelets/spike, number of grains/spike and yield/plot. Moderately high heritability and high genetic advance was noted for yield/plant and high heritability with moderately high genetic advance was also observed for total protein. This indicates that these attributes are mainly controlled by additive gene action. The characters which showed low heritability with low genetic advance are mainly determined by non-additive gene action.
The findings of the present study suggest that significant improvement can be brought about in important yield and quality attributes through selection in induced mutants.
