Genetic variability studies in pomegranate

Abstract

Genetic variability studies in 23 diverse genotypes including four mutant lines of pomegranate revealed higher genetic variability for most of the biochemical and morphological traits studied. High magnitude of coefficient of variability (phenotypic and genotypic) was observed for fruit and aril traits characters like fruit weight, fruit volume, fresh weight of 100 arils, dry weight of 100 arils, total aril weight and biochemical traits like titratable acidity, while low to moderate level of variation was observed in total soluble solids (TSS), pH and seed parameters like seed length and width. High heritability coupled with high magnitude of genetic advance was recorded for most of the characters viz. fruit weight, fruit volume, peel weight, aril weight, total no. of arils and titratable acidity. Whereas, comparatively lower heritability accompanied by low genetic advance was exhibited by characters like rind thickness, TSS, fruit juiciness and fruit diameter.