Chhabra, A.K.Jagdeep Singh2017-09-192017-09-192017http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810031448Fifty pearl millet inbred lines were used to study genetic variability and correlation analysis for Morpho-physiological characters namely leaf rolling, flag leaf area, flag leaf angle, number of tillers per plant, stem thickness, plant height, grain yield, dry fodder yield, days to 50 % flowering, panicle length, grain yield per panicle, grain volume, total panicle number per plant, grain mass (1000 grain wt.), grain number per panicle, drought response index (DRI), relative water content, drought susceptible index (DSI), canopy temperature, osmotic potential and chlorophyll fluorescence were studied. The pearl millet inbred lines were evaluated in randomized block design with three replications in two locations (Hisar and Bawal) in kharif 2013. Analysis of variance for all the characters under study showed significant differences indicating the presence of genetic variability among the inbreds lines. The genotypes were evaluated for 15 growth traits, yield components, and yield. All the quantitative traits varied significantly among the test genotypes. A wide range was observed for all variability parameters in characters studied which demonstrated presence of substantial variation among the inbred lines. A higher PCV of characters than its corresponding GCV suggested the role of environment in the expression of all these characters. High to moderate heritability and genetic advance as per cent of mean for dry fodder yield per plant, grain yield per plant indicated additive gene action for these characters. Panicle length, stem thickness and 1000 grain weight having moderate heritability with moderate genetic advance indicated both additive and non-additive gene effects for these traits. High heritability, low genetic advance and low variability observed for days to 50% flowering indicated prevalence of non-additive gene action for this trait. The correlation study revealed that estimated genotypic correlations for most of the characters were greater than their phenotypic ones. This clearly indicated that number tiller per plant can be used as indirect selection criteria to increase the seed yield only at hisar location. A set of 50 SSR primers was also used for molecular diversity assessment in 50 pearl millet inbred lines. Mean allele per locus and PIC obtained was 4.54 and, 0.579 respectively. Cluster analysis distributed these genotypes into 11 clusters where 2 genotypes failed to fall in any of these clusters.ennullThesis