Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

GENETIC VARIABILITY STUDIES IN RELATION TO SEED YIELD AND ITS COMPONENT TRAITS IN SOME ELITE GENOTYPES OFINDIAN MUSTARD (BRASSICA JUNCEA L. CZERN & COSS.)

Baldeep Singh Beniwal, N.K. Thakral, Sukhdeep Singh Sivia and Manav

Abstract

This experiment was conducted at the research area of the Oilseeds Section, Department of Genetics & Plant Breeding, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar during 2010-2011. Two hundred diverse germplasm lines of Indian mustard were grown in a randomized block design with two replications for fifteen quantitative traits to evaluate the mean, range, genotypic and phenotypic coefficient of variation, heritability in broad sense and genetic advance were calculated. Phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation were highest for number of secondary branches per plant followed by speed of germination, seed yield per plant and 1000 seed weight. Hence, direct selection for these traits will be effective. High heritability conjunction with high genetic advance was observed for seed yield per plant, number of secondary branches per plant, 1000 seed weight, speed of germination, siliqua angle indicated the predominant role of additive gene action for expression of these characters.The present study showed that there are variation in the extent of genetic variability, heritability and genetic advance in traits under study, which can facilitate selection for further improvement of important traits ofIndian mustard.