Association analysis among agronomic and fiber quality traits in color-cotton (Gossypium hirsutum)

Abstract

Improvement in the seed cotton yield with stable natural Color is an important goal in Color-cotton breeding. Seed cotton yield being a complex quantitative trait is affected by both genetic and environmental factors. Correlation studies pave a role in selection of yield influencing traits and gives an idea how traits are associated with it. We evaluated 240 Color-cotton genotypes with five white genotypes as checks during kharif 2016 at the Agricultural Research Station (ARS), Dharwad farm, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad using an augmented design. Analysis of variance indicated that there was significant variation in the experimental material. Seed cotton yield had highly significant and positive correlation with its component traits viz., plant height, number of monopodia per plant, number of sympodia per plant, number of bolls per plant, ginning outturn and boll weight. These traits can be used as surrogate traits for improvement of yield. Fiber color was negatively associated with upper half mean length of fibre, fiber strength, uniformity index and elongation value. It thus seems that improvement of fiber quality traits and improving intensity of pigmentation simultaneously is challenging. Intensity of pigmentation was directly associated with fiber fineness and maturity ratio. Thus, improvement of fiber color retaining other fiber quality traits should be the priority breeding approach in Color-cotton.