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The Journal of Research ANGRAU

Contents of 41(1) 2013 - acharya ng ranga agricultural university

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GENETIC VARIABILITY, HERITABILITY AND CHARACTER ASSOCIATION STUDIES<br />

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION<br />

<strong>The</strong> descriptive statistics and genetic<br />

variability parameters with respect to fourteen<br />

quantitative characters in F 2<br />

population <strong>of</strong> the cross<br />

‘27 B × SSV 84’ is presented in Table 1. <strong>The</strong>se<br />

descriptive statistics, unravels basic idea <strong>of</strong> the<br />

breeding material. <strong>The</strong> characteristics <strong>of</strong> this F 2<br />

population in respect <strong>of</strong> various quantitative<br />

characters as indicated by these first and second<br />

degree statistics are discussed below.<br />

Wide range <strong>of</strong> variability was present for the<br />

traits such as plant height, total biomass, fresh stalk<br />

yield, grain yield, juice yield, juice extraction per cent,<br />

sugar yield and bioethanol yield <strong>of</strong> this cross <strong>of</strong> sweet<br />

sorghum studied as indicated by their respective<br />

mean and variances. Existence <strong>of</strong> moderate<br />

variability was observed for days to 50% flowering<br />

and days to maturity. However, the variability range<br />

was low for the traits like nodes per plant, stem girth,<br />

brix per cent and total soluble sugars.<br />

<strong>The</strong> study <strong>of</strong> distribution properties such as<br />

co-efficients <strong>of</strong> skewness (third degree statistic) and<br />

kurtosis (fourth degree statistic) provides insight about<br />

the nature <strong>of</strong> gene action and number <strong>of</strong> genes<br />

controlling the traits, respectively. All the studies<br />

reported nature <strong>of</strong> genetic control <strong>of</strong> quantitative traits<br />

in sorghum is based on first degree (gene effects<br />

through generation mean analysis) and second degree<br />

(components <strong>of</strong> genetic variances through diallel, line<br />

× tester analysis, etc.) statistics. Skewness and<br />

kurtosis are greater than first and second degree<br />

statistics which reveal interaction genetic effects. <strong>The</strong><br />

skewed distribution <strong>of</strong> a trait in general suggests that<br />

the trait is under the control <strong>of</strong> non-additive gene<br />

action, especially epistasis and influenced by<br />

environmental variables (Kimberg and Bingham, 1998<br />

and Roy, 2000). Positive skewness is associated<br />

with complementary interaction and negative<br />

skewness is associated with duplicate (additive ×<br />

additive) gene interactions predominantly in the same<br />

directions. Complete ambi-directional epistasis<br />

however produces kurtosis while distribution stays<br />

symmetrical around mean. <strong>The</strong> genes controlling the<br />

trait with skewed distribution tend to be predominantly<br />

dominant irrespective <strong>of</strong> whether they have increasing<br />

or decreasing effects on the expression <strong>of</strong> the trait.<br />

<strong>The</strong> traits with leptokurtic and platykurtic<br />

distribution are controlled by fewer and a large number<br />

<strong>of</strong> genes, respectively. Kurtosis is negative or close<br />

to zero in the absence <strong>of</strong> gene interactions and is<br />

positive in the presence <strong>of</strong> gene interactions. <strong>The</strong><br />

inference on the relative number <strong>of</strong> genes and nature<br />

<strong>of</strong> genetic control <strong>of</strong> different traits in F 2<br />

generation<br />

<strong>of</strong> this sweet sorghum cross is discussed below.<br />

Platykurtic and positively skewed distribution<br />

suggested the involvement <strong>of</strong> relatively large number<br />

<strong>of</strong> segregating genes with dominance based<br />

complementary type <strong>of</strong> interaction in the inheritance<br />

<strong>of</strong> days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant<br />

height, total biomass, fresh stalk yield, grain yield,<br />

juice yield, juice extraction per cent and sugar yield<br />

in ‘27 B × SSV 84’ cross. Maximizing the genetic<br />

gain in respect <strong>of</strong> these traits with positively skewed<br />

distribution requires intense selection from the<br />

existing variability.<br />

<strong>The</strong> inheritance <strong>of</strong> nodes per plant and stem<br />

girth recorded negatively skewed platykurtic<br />

distribution which indicates that these traits are<br />

governed by large number <strong>of</strong> dominant genes with<br />

duplicate type <strong>of</strong> epistasis. <strong>The</strong>se traits have evolved<br />

with dominance and dominance based duplicate<br />

epistasis which helps to protect the individual plants<br />

from deleterious alleles arising from existing<br />

variability (Roy, 2000).<br />

<strong>The</strong> leptokurtic and positively skewed<br />

distribution for traits such as brix per cent, total<br />

soluble sugars and bioethanol yield suggested the<br />

involvement <strong>of</strong> relatively fewer number <strong>of</strong> segregating<br />

genes with dominance based complementary<br />

interaction in the inheritance <strong>of</strong> these traits. To<br />

achieve maximum genetic gain in respect <strong>of</strong> these<br />

traits needs intense selection.<br />

Estimation <strong>of</strong> variability parameters in a<br />

population is a pre-requisite for breeding programme<br />

aimed at improving yield, quality and other important<br />

characters under consideration. Unless a major<br />

portion <strong>of</strong> variation is heritable, attempts to improve<br />

characters by selection would be futile. <strong>The</strong>refore, it<br />

is necessary to have information on both PCV and<br />

GCV, so that the heritability, which helps the breeder<br />

to predict the expected genetic advance possible by<br />

selection for characters, can be computed. According<br />

to Johnson et al. (1955), heritability estimates along<br />

with genetic gain would be more useful than the former<br />

alone in predicting the effectiveness <strong>of</strong> selection.<br />

<strong>The</strong>refore it is essential to consider the predicted<br />

genetic advance along with heritability estimate as a<br />

tool in selection programme for better efficiency.<br />

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