Genetic Variability, Heritability and Genetic Advance Among Bread Wheat Genotypes at Southeastern Ethiopia

Tilahun Bayisa,Tesfaye Letta,Habtamu Tefera

doi:10.11648/j.aff.20200904.15

Abstract

The knowledge of nature and magnitude of variation existing in available breeding materials is great importance for successful selection of varieties. This study was conducted to generate information on the extent of genetic variability in advanced bread wheat lines. Thirty bread wheat genotypes were tested at Sinana and Agarfa, Southeastern Ethiopia, in alpha lattice design with three replications. Combined over locations ANOVA was carried out for yield and yield related traits. There were highly significant differences among genotypes for all traits. Highly significant location effects at P < 0.01 were observed for yield and yield related except for harvest index which showed significant effect at P < 0.05 and grain yield non-significant location effect. This indicates the presence of variability for these characters among the tested genotypes. In combined analysis, grain yield had high PCV (27.1%) and moderate GCV was observed for biomass weight, grain yield and harvest index. Phenotypic coefficient of variance (PCV) moderate for biomass weight and harvest index. Heritability estimates in broad sense (H2) was very high for most of the characters except for grain yield (52.3%) and number of kernel per spike (73.2%). However, low GAM was observed for most of the characters except moderate GAM was observed for harvest index (15.9%). Finally, the presence of variability among the genotypes, performance of heritability and GAM in the tested traits of the genotypes confirmed possibility to increase wheat productivity. Hence, selection and hybridization on those genotypes can be recommended for farther yield improvement of bread wheat.

Highlights

Bread wheat, Triticum aestivum L. (2n = 6x = 42, AABBDD), belongs to the tribe Triticeae in the family Poaceae
Low genotypic coefficient of variability (GCV) and Phenotypic coefficient of variance (PCV) was observed for days to heading (4.4% and 4.6%), days to mature (2.6% and 2.8%), grain filling period (4.3% and 4.6%), plant height (4.1% and 4.6%), spike length (7.2% and 7.8%), number of kernel per spike (7.8% and 9.1%) and hectoliter (3.8% and 4.2%)
For combined location high heritability accompanied with low genetic advance as percent of mean was observed for days to heading, days to mature, grain filling period, plant height, spike length, biomass weight and hectoliter weight (Table 4)

Summary

Introduction

Ethiopia is leading wheat producer in Sub Saharan Africa and total production of 4.53 million tons [3]. Oromia National Regional State contributes a total production of 2.66 million tons in the country. Among the wheat producing zones of Oromia, Arsi, West Arsi and Bale are considered as the wheat belts of eastern Africa. The productivity of wheat has increased in the last few years in the country, it is still very low as compared to other wheat producing countries in other parts of the world. The national average of wheat productivity is estimated to be 2.68 t ha-1 [3], which is below the world average of 3.0 t ha-1 [4]

Methods

Results

Conclusion