Journal of Environmental Biology

Exploring genetic variability in ethyl methane sulfonate mediated mutant population of Wagad cultivar of Gossypium herbaceum

U. Kumar^1,3, S.V. Sawant^2,3 and H.K.Yadav^1,3*

¹Plant Genetic Resources and Improvement, CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow-226 001, India

²Genetics and Molecular Biology Division, CSIR-National Botanical Research Institute, Lucknow-226 001, India

³Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR), Ghaziabad-201 002, India

*Corresponding Author Email : h.yadav@nbri.res.in

Received: 20.01.202                                                                  Revised: 26.06.2020                                             Accepted: 05.03.2021

Abstract

Aim: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the genetic variability in Gossypium herbaceum (2n=2x=26) and identification of elite lines for future genetic improvement.

Methodology: The seeds of G. herbaceum (cv. Wagad) was treated with 70 mM EMS to develop the mutant population. A set of 235 selected M3 mutant families were grown in a random block design (RBD). Genetic variability was evaluated for 14 agro-morphological traits.

Results: ANOVA showed significant differences (P≤0.05) among the lines for all the traits. The phenotypic (PCV), genotypic coefficient of variability (GCV), heritability in broad sense (h²B%) and genetic advance (GA%) were found to be high for most of the traits. The trait association revealed that the biological yield per plant showed a positive and significant correlation with number of bolls/plant, plant height, leaf area, internodal distance, lint weight/plant and seed weight/plant. Path coefficients analysis confirmed that seed weight per plant had a significant role in the yield than other yield components. All the mutant lines were grouped into 16 clusters and exhibited considerable degree of genetic diversity.      

Interpretation: The advance mutant lines from distant clusters may be useful for further exploitation for genetic improvement and development of high yielding varieties.       

Key words: Gossypium herbaceum, Genetic variability, M3 mutant families

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