Abstract
BackgroundCotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is grown for fiber and oil purposes in tropical and sub-tropical areas of the world. Pakistan is the 4th largest producer of cotton. It has a significant contribution in the GDP of Pakistan. Therefore, the present study was performed to assess the genetic variations and genetic diversity of yield and fiber quality traits in cotton and to analyze the associations present among them.ResultsAnalysis of variance exhibited significant variation for all studied traits except total number of nodes and the height to node ratio. The phenotypic coefficient of variation was higher than the genotypic coefficient of variation for all studied traits. Plant height, monopodial branches, total number of bolls, lint index, seed index, and seed cotton yield displayed high heritabilities in a broad sense with maximum genetic advance. Correlation analysis revealed that seed cotton yield had a significant positive association with plant height, the number of monopodial branches, the number of sympodial branches, ginning outturn (GOT), the number of bolls, seed per boll, seed index, uniformity index, the number of sympodial branches, reflectance, and seed index at the genotypic level while a significant positive relationship was observed with plant height, the number of sympodial branches, boll number, and GOT. Plant height, monopodial branches, GOT, boll weight, seeds per boll, and short fiber index exerted direct positive effects on seed cotton yield. The first 6 principal component analysis (PCs) out of the total fourteen PCs displayed eigenvalues (> 1) and had maximum share to total variability (82.79%). The attributes that had maximum share to total divergence included plant height, uniformity index, the number of sympodial branches, seed per boll, GOT, seed cotton yield, and short fiber index.ConclusionThe genotype AA-802, IUB-13, FH-159, FH-458, and CIM-595 were genetically diverse for most of the yield and fiber quality traits and could be utilized for the selection of better performing genotypes for further improvement.
Highlights
Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is grown for fiber and oil purposes in tropical and sub-tropical areas of the world
Five plants of each genotype were selected from each replication and data was recorded for characters including plant height, the total number of nodes per plant, height to node ratio, the number of monopodial branches per plant, the number of sympodial branches per plant, the number of bolls per plant, boll weight, the total number of seeds per boll, seed index, lint index, ginning outturn (GOT), upper half mean length (UHML), fiber strength, fiber fineness, uniformity index, short fiber index reflectance, and seed cotton yield
Estimates of genetic variability revealed that the highest genotypic coefficient of variation for seed cotton yield was followed by the number of monopodial branches, the number of sympodial branches, plant height, the number of bolls per plant, and boll weight
Summary
Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is grown for fiber and oil purposes in tropical and sub-tropical areas of the world. Pakistan is the 4th largest producer of cotton It has a significant contribution in the GDP of Pakistan. Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) is mainly grown for fiber and oil purposes and is crucial for the elevation of a country’s economy and called “White gold” (Komala et al 2018). It is recognized globally as an important fiber crop and is cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The production has been declined up to 17.5%, causing a decrease in cotton ginning by 12.74% (Anonymous 2019–20)
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