Heritability and genetic advance for quantitative traits in medium duration pigeonpea [Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.]

Abstract

Six generations, namely P1, P2, F1, F2, BC1 and BC2 of five crosses of pigeonpea were grown in Compact Family Block Design with three replications in kharif 2018 at Pulses Research Station, Junagadh Agricultural University, Junagadh. The observatiosns were recorded on five randomly selected plants from P1, P2 and F1, twenty plants from F2 and ten plants from BC1 and BC2 generations in each replication for ten characters. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance was observed for number of primary branches per plant in GJP 1 × BDN 2010-1, TDRG 107 × BDN 2010-1 and GJP 1310 × BSMR 853 and number of secondary branches per plant in cross GJP 1310 × BSMR 853 which indicated that the predominance of additive gene action in the expression of these characters which could be utilized through selection for the genetic improvement of these characters. Rest of the traits showed high to low heritability estimates coupled with moderate to low genetic advance as percentage of mean indicated the role of non-additive genetic variance in their expression.