Genetic variability and correlation studies for morphological and biochemical traits of Annona genotypes

Abstract

The present study was carried out for genetic variability and correlation studies for morphological and biochemical traits of Annona genotypes. The maximum plant height (4.35 m), fresh fruit weight (FFW) (346.66 g), fruit length (8.11 cm) and pulp weight (237.76) were observed in the genotype No.1. Similarly in Arka Sahan, the highest total soluble sugars (TSS) (27.170 B) and total sugars (26.13%) were recorded. Most of the traits exhibited a heritability of more than 50% depicting their higher heritability. The highest values for phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) and genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) were observed for traits like fruit weight, fruit diameter, pulp weight, rind weight, seed weight, number of seeds and seed percentage (SPER). Biochemical traits like TSS (6.860B), reducing sugar (5.14%) showed the lowest GCV values. The highest genetic advance as per cent mean (GAM) was found for fruit diameter (167.19%) followed by pulp weight (129.28 g), number of fruits/plant (124.52) and FFW (96.09 g). The highest GAM for biochemical traits was exhibited by titratable acidity (TA) (73.21%).Pearson correlation matrix revealed that plant height, fruit diameter, number of seeds/fruit exhibited positive correlation with fruit weight. However, seed weight, TSS, total sugars, number of fruits/plant parameters were negatively correlated to plant height. Based on the desirable fruit characters, viz. high pulp percentage, low SPER with minimum number of seeds, the genotypes No. 1, Island Gem, No. 2 Arka Sahan and Balanagar found highly promising genotypes.