D2 Analysis and Character Association Studies in Bread Wheat (Triticum Aestivum L.)

Abstract

A field expenment was conducted on wheat (Tnt1cum aest1vum L } dunng Rab1 season 2009-1 o 1n RandomiZed Block Oestgn with three rephcatlons at Crop Research Centre of Sardar Vallabhbhal Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut-250 110 (U P ) The arm of the expenment was to collect th; inform~tion on genetic vanability, drrect and 1nd1rect selectJon parameters, path coefficient analysis and 0 - analysis for eleven characters VIZ, days to matunty, plant height number of productive tillers per plant spike length (em}, number sp1kelets per spike, number of grains per spike, btolog1cal y1eld per plant, gratn yield per plant, harvest index (0/c,), test weight (g) and gluten content (0/c,} by evaluation of forty-mne dNerse strains of bread wheat. The objectJves of present tnvesttgatJon were to study the genetic dtvergence usmg 0 2 statistics, phenotypic and genotypic variability, path coefficient analysts and character association among the different traits. The systematic data were recorded for above mentJoned 11 characters and subjected to different biometrical computations. The results obtained on drfferent aspects for vanous tratts are summarized here as under. ANOVA table for the experiment revealed htghly stgnrficant differences among the genotypes for all the characters under study The characters like gluten content, test weight grain yield per plant btologtcal yield per plant number of grains per spike and number of productive tillers per plant showed high percentage of phenotypic as well as genotypic coefficient of variability. High heritability estimates tn broad sense, were observed for test weight (g), plant height (em), gluten content (%), number of spikelets per spike and spike length In general, medium genetic advance in per cent of mean was observed for almost all the characters studied except number of productive tillers per plant, harvest index(%) and days to maturity In the character association studies grain yield per plant showed highly signrficant and posrtJve correlation with biological yield per plant number of productive tillers per plant, number of spikelets per spike, number of grains per spike, spike length and plant height Highly significant and positive correlations were also observed among the various characters. However, between the characters like days to matunty with number of productive tillers per plant, number of productive tillers per plant with harvest index (%), biological yield per plant with harvest index, days to maturity with plant height and days to maturity with gratn yield per plant, exhibited significant and negative associations. Path coefficient analysis of grain yield and its contributing characters revealed that biological yteld per plant, harvest index (%), days to maturity and plant height had the positive direct effect on gratn yteld. The direct effects of the remaining characters on grain yield were negative and of low magnitude. The results of 0 2 analysis indicated the presence of high amount of genetic diversity among the genotypes studied. The forty-nine strains of different geographic origin were grouped into eight clusters based on 0 2 analysis. The highest inter cluster distance was observed between cluster VI and IV. Whereas, the lowest inter cluster distance was reflected between clusters II and I. The highest tntra-cluster distance was expressed by the cluster VII and lowest by the cluster VI. Based on the genetic diversity and superiority with respect to any of the trait(s) the nin~ gen?typ~s namely RAJ 4239, GW 423, NIAW 1594, WH 1099, HD 3067, PBW 656, HI 8710 and K 0~11 tdentified ~n the present study and these genotypes should be involve in hybridization programme.for the tmprovement tn the yield of wheat as they were found superior to other genotypes for one or more tratts