STUDY OF VARIABILITY IN WHEAT (Triticum aestivum L.) UNDER SALINE CONDITION

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted at the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur, Bangladesh during the period from November 2012 to April 2013 in order to study the genetic variability of 10 wheat genotypes in saline condition. The experiment was laid out in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications. In this experiment, the seeds of the 10 wheat genotypes were used viz. Aghrani, Sawrav, Shatabdi, BARI-25, BARI-27, PYT-12, PYT-13, PYT-15, PYT-20 and BAW — 1135. Mean performance, mean separation, variance, heritability, genetic advance and genetic advance of percent of mean were done on yield and yield contributing characters namely days to heading, number of tillers, days to maturity, plant height (cm), spike length (cm), spikelet per spike, grain per spike, root length (cm), root volume (cm?), root weight (gm), root dry weight (gm) and grain yield per plant. The highest grain yield per plant (3.297 gm) was recorded from BAW — 1135 again the lowest (1.637 gm) was found from Aghrani. Analysis of variance reveals that, plant height (23.03) is significant at 5% level of probability. On the other hand days to heading (21.328), spike length (0.703) and grain per spike (67.470) are significant at 1 % level of probability. Phenotypic variance (0.2433) was higher than genotypic (0.138) variance which was supported by low difference between phenotypic (21.455%) coefficient of variation and genotypic (16.158) coefficient of variation. Heritability estimates revealed that characters like days to heading exhibited highest heritability followed by spike length and grain per spike. Genetic Advance revealed that it was low in all the characters. Genetic Advance as percent of mean revealed that it was high for grain per spike, yield per plant, root volume and root weight and moderate estimates were exhibited by root dry weight and number of tillers per plant and low genetic advance as percent of mean was observed for days to heading, days to maturity, plant height, spike length, spikelet per spike and root length. Moderate heritability (56.72%) was supported by high genetic advance over mean (25.068). Characters like grain per spike showed high heritability coupled with high genetic advance as percent of mean therefore, this character should be given top priority during selection breeding in wheat in saline condition.