Genetic variability studies in Amaranthus (Amaranthus spp.)
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Date
2019
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Abstract
ABSTRACT
Fifty genotypes (germplasm) of amaranthus maintained at Central Horticultural
Experiment Station, ICAR-IIHR, Bhubaneswar were evaluated for genetic parameters
following Complete Randomized Block Design with two replications during Oct 2018- January
2019. A wide range of variation was observed among the genotypes for all the 13 parameters
studied. Genotypes such as IIHR-BAM-36, IIHR-BAM-39, IIHR-BAM-52, IIHR-BAM-54,
IIHR-BAM-65, IIHR-BAM-162, IIHR-BAM-200 and IIHR-BAM-201 were identified as ideal
among the evaluated genotypes for cultivation under Odisha condition. Existence of minimum
difference between phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) and genotypic coefficient of
variation (GCV) for all the characters indicated minimum influence of environment in the
performance of the genotypes. High estimates of genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV),
heritability and genetic advance (GA) were observed for fresh weight (36.70, 99.03 % and 93.47
respectively) and as well as for other parameters like number of leaves per plant, leaf area,
plant height, days to seed maturity, days to flowering and edible stage. Correlation studies
among the characters revealed a strong association between fresh weight with characters like
plant height (0.665**), number of branches per plant (0.611**), number of leaves per plant
(0.645**) and stem girth (0.702**) at genotypic levels depicting that these are important
correlated characters contributing towards yield. Path coefficient analysis of various traits
indicated that stem girth (0.542) had the maximum positive direct effect on yield followed by
number of branches (0.399). Crop duration for edible stage, days to seed maturity, leaf length,
petiole length, 1000 seed weight and leaf breadth exhibited negative direct effect on yield of
amaranthus. With the help of D2 statistics and Tocher’s methods, the genotypes were grouped
into six clusters. Cluster IV (two genotypes) and VI (single genotype) showed highest intercluster
distance (94.160), thus hybridization involving parents from these two Clusters would
be more effective. Characters like 1000 seed weight (57.06 %), fresh weight per plant (14.12
%) and leaf area (11.59%) predominantly contributed towards genetic divergence among the
genotypes. So, selection of parents differing in these characters may be useful for developing
hybrids in amaranthus.
Description
Th-5735
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