Variability, heritability and genetic advance for yield and yield contributing characters in Embelia ribes Burm f. – An endangered medicinal plant

Abstract

Abstract The experiment was conducted during 2015-2016 at Division of Plant Genetic Resources, ICAR-Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (ICAR-IIHR), Hessarghatta, Bengaluru. Genotypic variability, heritability and genetic advance for yield and yield contributing traits were studied in five Embelia ribes Burm f. accessions. Data were recorded for plant height (m), leaf length (cm), leaf width (cm), petiole length (cm), leaf area (cm2), number of inflorescence per plant, fruit length (cm), fruit diameter(cm), seed length(cm), seed weight, fruit yield (kg/plant). Among different yield attributing characters studied, the highest magnitude of PCV and GCV were recorded in leaf area (6.43 and 5.73 %), number of inflorescence per plant (46.35 and 45.10 %) and fruit yield per plant (48.67 and 48.24 %). High heritability coupled with high genetic advance as per cent over mean was recorded for the characters viz., leaf width (99.00 %), petiole length (91.00%), plant height (95.20 %), number of inflorescence per plant (95.00 %), fruit weight (91.02) and fruit yield per plant (98.22 %).Hence, these characters were predominantly governed by additive gene action and could be used as a selection criterion for breeding programmes in the future. Keywords: Embelia ribes, Variability, Heritability, Genetic advance