Genetic variability, heritability, correlation coefficient and path analysis in Lathyrus for yield and its related contributes under NEH condition

Abstract

Seven parental lines with 21 F1 cross combination of Lathyrus, totally 28 treatments were grown in the RBD with three replications. Each parents and F1s in single row 4m long were grown with the spacing of 30 x 10 cm between and within rows, respectively. The analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the parents and the F1 cross combinations for all the traits studied indicating presence of sufficient genetic variability among the genotypes. In general, phenotypic coefficients of variability were higher than related genotypic coefficients of variability for all the characters which demonstrated the effect of environment upon the traits. A comparatively higher estimate of phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV of more than 15%) were observed for plant height (17.29), harvest index (18.42), number of primary branches per plant (25.68), number of pods per plant (23.26), 100 seeds weight (15.89), biological yield per plant(31.48) and seed yield per plant (30.74). The highest genotypic coefficient of variability was observed for harvest index (12.21), 100 seed weight (14.30), plant height (16.12), number of primary branches per plant (23.58), number of pods per plant (20.55), seed yield per plant (27.31) and biological yield per plant (29.63) which shows the presence of utilizable genetic variability for these traits. The outcome of the present study showed that, the heritability (bs) estimates were recorded quite high (>50%) for the traits biological yield, plant height, number of primary branches per plant, 100 seed weight, seed yield per plant, number of pods per plant and pod length. Other characters were shown the less heritability. Biological yield, plant height and number of pods per plant were reveals significant and positive correlation with yield. High positive significant direct effect on seed yield was influenced by biological yield and Harvest index. In view of above correlation and path analysis, for selection of the yield contributing characters, in Lathyrus, the importance should be given to the following characters, viz., Biological yield, plant height and number of pods/plant.