Path Coefficient Correlation and Genetic Divergence in Bread Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)

Abstract

Genetic variation, heritability, genetic advance, correlation coefficient, path coefficient analysis and genetic divergence studied in wheat during rabi 2015-16 at oilseed farm of Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture &Technology, Kanpur (U.P). A collection of fifty wheat genotypes from different eco-geographic origin were evaluated for ten quantitative characters viz. days to 50 % flowering, days to reproductive phase, days to maturity, plant height (cm), number of reproductive tillers per plant, spike length (cm), number of grains per spike, grain weight per spike (gm.), test weight (gm.) and grain yield per plant (gm.).All the characters, under study showed considerable amount of variability, phenotypic coefficient of variability was higher than genotypic coefficient of variability.These traits exhibited higher variation for GCV and PCV across the environments. A persual of coeffiecient of variability indicates that PCV and GCV were quiet high for grain yield per plant. Moderate PCV and GCV were recorded in spike length and grain weight per spike and the lowest observed in days to maturityand days to 50% flowering. A high estimate of heritability was found for grain yield per plant. Genetic advance confirms the heritability estimate. High genetic advance was observed for grain yield (30.16) and minimum in days to reproductive phase (2.27). Genotypic correlation coefficients were higher than the corresponding phenotypic correlation coefficients for all the character combinations. Grain yield per plant showed highly positive association ship with plant height, spike length, grain weight per spike and number of grains per spike grain weight per spike. Genetic divergence was determined using D2 and all the fifty genotypes were grouped into eight clusters. Maximum inter cluster distances were observed betweenVI and VIII followed by cluster VII and VIII and cluster V and VIII. Cluster VII retains highest rank in spike length and grains per spike. Cluster-V holds first rank in days to flowering and days to maturity.On the basis of genetic divergence , it is suggested that the crosses between VIII ,VII , VI and V may be effective components in hybridization.