Variability, heritability and genetic advance in mulberry (Morus spp.) for growth and yield attributes

Subramaniam Gandhi Doss, Shyama Prasad Chakraborti, Sukhen Roychowdhuri, Nirvan Kumar Das, Kunjupillai Vijayan, Partha Dev Ghosh, Mala V. Rajan, Syed Mashayak Hussaini Qadri

Central Sericultural Research and Training Institute, Berhampore, India.
Central Sericultural Research and Training Institute, Mysore, India.
Central Silk Board, BTM Layout, Bangalore, India.
Department of Botany, University of Kalyani, Kalyani, India.
Research Extension Center, Nabagram, India.

DOI: 10.4236/as.2012.32024                

Abstract

Genetic improvement of crop plants is brought about by manipulating the genetic makeup through systematic breeding techniques or by employing modern biotechnological tools. Application of systematic breeding technique to a large extent is decided by the knowledge on the genetic control of the traits. Keeping this in view, nine mulberry genotypes were evaluated for different growth and yield attributing traits viz., number of tillers (NT), plant height (PH), total shoot length (TSL), nodal distance (ND), leaf fall % (LF), number of leaves/plant (NLP), weight of 100 fresh leaves (WFL), weight of 100 dry leaves (WDL), single leaf area (LA), leaf area index (LAI), aboveground biomass (AGB), leaf harvest index (LHI) and leaf yield (LY) and estimated the magnitude of genotypic and phenotypic variation, heritability, genetic advance and correlation coefficients. The broad sense heritability for these traits ranged from 63.942 (WFL) to 13.261 (PH). High heritability coupled with high genetic advance was recorded for the characters WFL, LF, LA, WDL and LY suggesting the higher genetic control over these traits. Leaf yield showed significantly positive phenotypic and genotypic correlations with all other growth traits except PH and LF. Leaf fall had significant negative correlations with all the highly heritable yield attributes viz., ND (-0.379), WDL (-0.225), LA (-0.346), LAI (-0.233) at 1% level and AGB (-0.148), LHI (-0.122) and LY (-0.146) at 5% level. Likewise, it showed positive correlations with TSL (0.558), NLP (0.264) and PH (0.221). Since mulberry is mainly cultivated for leaf yield, genotypes having higher WFL, LA, WDL and LY and less LF must be given importance during parent selection to evolve high yielding varieties with less leaf fall across different seasons in mulberry.

Keywords

Variability; Heritability; Genetic Advance; Yield Attributes; Low Leaf Senescence

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Ashiru, M.O. (2002) The effect of mulberry varieties on the performance of Chul Thai-5 silkworm race. Discovery and Innovation, 14, 77-83.
[2]	Vijayan, K., Chakraborti, S.P., Roy, B.N. and Sen, S.K. (1998) Winter hardy mulberry varieties: A need. Indian Silk, 37, 6-8.
[3]	Noamani, M.K.R., Mukherjee, P.K. and Krishnaswami, S. (1970) Studies on the effect of feeding multivoltine silkworm (Bombyx mori) larvae with mildew effected leaves. Indian Journal of Sericulture, 9, 49-52.
[4]	Sullia, S.B. and Padma, S.D. (1987) Acceptance of mildew affected leaves by silkworm (Bombyx mori L.) and its effect on cocoon characteristics. Sericologia, 27, 693- 696.
[5]	Thomas H. and Smart C.M. (1993) Crops that stay green. Annals of Applied Biology, 123, 193-219. doi:10.1111/j.1744-7348.1993.tb04086.x
[6]	Rivero, R.M., Kojima, M., Gepstein, A., Sakakibara, H., Mittler, R., Gepstein, S. and Blumwald, E. (2007) Delayed senescence induces extremen drought tolerance in a flowering plant. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, 104, 19631-19636. doi:10.1073/pnas.0709453104
[7]	Ray, D., Mondal, L.N., Pain, A.K. and Mondal, S.K. (1973) Effect of NPK on farmyard manure on the yield and nutritive value of mulberry leaf. Indian Journal of Sericulture, 12, 7-12.
[8]	Burton, G.W. (1952) Quantitative inheritance in grasses. Proceedings of 6th International Grassland Congress, 1, 277-283.
[9]	Lush, J.L. (1949) Hritability of quantitative characters in farm animals. Hereditas, 35, 356-375. doi:10.1111/j.1601-5223.1949.tb03347.x
[10]	Burton G.W. and Devane E.M. (1953) Estimating heritability in tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) from replicated clonal material. Agronomy Journal, 45, 478-481. doi:10.2134/agronj1953.00021962004500100005x
[11]	Johnson H.W., Robinson H.F. and Comstock R.E. (1955) Estimates of genetic and environmental variability in soybeans. Agronomy Journal, 47, 314-318. doi:10.2134/agronj1955.00021962004700070009x
[12]	Masilamani S., Reddy A.R., Sarkar A., Srinivas B.T. and Kamble C.K. (2000) Heritability and genetic advance of quantitative traits in mulberry (Morus spp.). Indian Journal of Sericulture, 39, 16-20.
[13]	Doss, S.G., Rahman, M.S., Debnath, S., Ghosh, M.K., Sau, H., Ghosh, P.L. and Sarkar, A. (2006) Variability, heritability and genetic advance in nine germplasm lines of mulberry (Morus spp.). Indian Journal of Genetics, 66, 169-170.
[14]	Rahman, M.S., Doss, S.G., Debnath, S., Roychowdhuri, S., Ghosh, P.L. and Sarkar, A. (2006) Genetic variability and correlation studies of leaf characters in some mulberry (Morus spp.) germplasm accessions. Indian Journal of Genetics, 66, 359-360.
[15]	Vijayan, K., Tikader, A., Das, K.K., Chakraborti, S.P. and Roy, B.N. (1997) Correlation studies in mulberry (Morus spp.). Indian Journal of Genetics, 57, 455-460.