Studies on Genetic Variability for Grain Yield Related Traits, Iron and Zinc Content in RIL Population of Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Abstract

Genetic variability was studied in F7 RIL population of the cross IR 64 X Jalpriya of rice at Indian Institute of Rice Research farm, ICRISAT, Hyderabad, India, during kharif, 2017 to estimate variability for grain yield and yield attributing characters along with grain iron and grain zinc concentrations. The results showed that PCV values in general were higher than GCV for various characters studied. The phenotypic and genotypic co-efficient of variation (PCV and GCV) was high for grain yield per plant followed by number of productive tillers per plant, number of filled grains per panicle and moderate for plant height, panicle weight and grain iron concentration. The small difference observed between GCV and PCV indicate the presence of high genetic variability for the traits which may facilitate selection. High heritability coupled with high GAM was found for the traits viz., plant height, number of productive tiller per plant, number of filled grains per panicle and single plant yield indicate that these characters are attributable to additive gene effects which are fixable and revealed that improvement in these characters would be possible through direct selection.