II. 33 Correlation and coheritability studies in certain gamma ray induced mutants of barley (Hordeum vulgare).
Rishi Muni Singh and Jagdamba Singh. Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi - 221005, India.
Improvement in characters such as yield and total protein necessitates the knowledge of correlation between component characters and their association with complex traits. Five promising mutants of barley (isolated in M2) along with control were tested in randomized block design with three replications in M4 generation. Observations were recorded on yield characters and total protein. Though the number of mutants tested was rather low, considering the phenotypic differences among them it was thought desirable to estimate correlations and coheritability among yield traits and total protein. The estimates of genotypic and phenotypic correlations among the yield traits and protein and coheritability are presented in Table 1. Spike length showed significant positive genotypic and phenotypic correlations with grain yield/plant and no. of grains per spike. Plant height was significantly associated with grain yield/plant and spike length (at genotypic level). No. of grains/spike was positively correlated with plant height. This indicates the importance of these characters for effective selection in improving yield/plant. Yield had significant negative association with protein content. This suggests that selection for protein would tend to lower the grain yield. .
The high and positive coheritability were observed for plant height with plant yield and spike length, between spike length and yield/plant and no. of grains per spike with spike length and plant height. Positive coheritability values were also observed for 1000-grain weight with yield/ plant and total protein. This indicates that selection for plant height, spike length, no. of grains/spike and 1000-grain weight would improve the yield. However, total protein was found to be negatively coheritable with yield showing independent inhertiance of these two traits. Thus, induced mutants do not seem to differ from natural barley cultivars in correlations and coheritabilities of the characters studied.
