Genetic Studies for Yield and Fibre Quality Related Traits in Upland Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) and Identification of Superior Transgressive Segregants

Abstract

Improvement of agronomic traits and fibre quality in cotton requires detailed information on genetic variation available in the population. The objective of this study was to investigate variability, heritability and character association in nine agronomic and five fibre quality traits among 220 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from MCU 5 and TCH1218. The study was undertaken during kharif 2018-19 at Department of cotton, TNAU, Coimbatore. High PCV and GCV were exhibited by number of monopodia per plant, while moderate GCV and high PCV were recorded by number of bolls per plant. The traits boll weight, single plant yield, lint index and fibre fineness exhibited moderate GCV. Most of traits except five were in similar trend for GCV and PCV indicating less environmental influence. All traits had high heritability, whereas high GAM was expressed for number of monopodia per plant, boll weight, lint index, elongation percentage and fibre fineness. Such traits were additive in nature and process of selection will be effective. Number of bolls per plant and number of sympodia per plant were positively and significantly correlated with single plant yield. In fibre quality, bundle strength and elongation percentage were significantly and positively correlated with upper half mean length. So, while selecting high yielding genotypes these traits are to be considered. Superior transgressive segregants for single plant yield was identified as RIL 44 as it performed better for other yield component traits, while for fibre quality RIL 63 performance was comparatively higher. Among the population RIL 220 ranked top for single plant yield and upper half mean length. Fibre quality traits had few favourable segregants when compared to yield traits. These identified RILs can be used in advance breeding trial for varietal development.

Genetic variability for yield and fiber related traits in genetically modified cotton

“…Erande et al (2014) and Monisha et al (2018) reported a significantly positive association of GOT with yield, the number of bolls and seeds per boll. The results of path analysis were in accordance with Nandhini et al (2019) and Kumbhar et al (2020), who suggested direct positive effects of boll weight on yield. Manonmani et al (2019) and Ali et al (2020) reported a direct positive effect of seed per boll on yield.…”

“…Similar results have been reported by Reddy et al (2019) while Kumbhar et al (2020) reported a significantly positive association of plant height with sympodial branches. Erande et al (2014) and Nandhini et al (2019) reported a non-significant and positive correlation of the number of monopodial branches with GOT. Salahuddin et al (2010) found that at the phenotypic level, yield was positively associated with sympodial and bolls.…”

Genetic variability studies for yield components and fibre quality traits in upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)

“…This indicates that heritability is due to additive gene action and hence direct selection will be profitable in these traits. Previous studies bySahar et al (2021),Abro et al (2021),Nandhini et al (2019), Nikhil et al (2018 andShao et al (2016) documented similar results. Higher heritability with medium genetic advance was found for days to 50 per cent flowering (66.77 %, 10.85 %), plant height (80.90 %, 15.97 %), seed index (72.67 %, 12.53 %) and fibre strength (83.20 %, 13.36 %).…”