Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

CHARACTER ASSOCIATION AND PATH COEFFICIENT ANALYSIS AMONG SEED YIELD TRAITS AND OIL CONTENT IN LINSEED (LINUM USITATISSIMUM L.)

R.B.P. Nirala, 1Neha Rani, Chandan Kishore, P.K. Singh and P.K. Singh

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the direct and indirect relationships between yield and yield components of linseed using correlation and path analyses. The experiment were carried out at Agricultural Research Institute, Patna Farm of Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour, Bhagalpur. The eight genotypes of linseed were crossed in all possible cross combinations without reciprocal to generate 28 F1’s during rabi, 2011-12. All the 28 F1’s, 08 parents and 01 check were evaluated in randomized complete block design with three replications during rabi 2012-13. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among genotypes for all the characters indicating the presence of considerable amount of genetic variability. Correlation coefficients analysis showed higher genotypic correlation coefficients in magnitude and same direction in comparison to phenotypic correlation coefficients of the characters. This result indicated that grain yield had highly significant and positive phenotypic correlation with days to 50 per cent maturity (0.614**), number of primary branches per plant (0.4553**), number of capsules per plant (0.7106**), number of seeds per capsule (0.4894**) and 1000-grain weight (0.6289**). On other hand days to 50 per cent flowering had significant and positive correlation with days to 50 per cent maturity (0.3582*) whereas, days 50 per cent maturity had significant and positive correlation with number of primary branches per plant (0.3980*), number of capsules per plant (0.4319**) and number of seed per capsule (0.5703**). Plant height showed significant and negative correlation with per cent of oil content (-0.4875**) on the other hand primary branches per plant showed significant and positive correlation with number of capsules per plant (0.5294**) and per cent of oil content (0.3438*). Number of capsules per plant had significant and positive correlation with 1000-grain weight (0.5032**) whereas, number of seeds per capsule had significant and positive correlation with 1000-grain weight (0.3839*) and per cent of oil content (0.3744*). Phenotypic path coefficient analysis revealed that the direct effect on grain yield was high and positive for days to 50 per cent maturity (0.3114) and moderate and positive for number of capsules per plant (0.2950), 1000-grain weight (0.2911), number of primary branches (0.2279) and number of seeds per capsule (0.2030). Hence, the result suggested that days to 50 per cent maturity is the major yield attributing traits in linseed.