HERITABILITY ESTIMATES OF PHYSIOLOGICAL AND YIELD COMPONENTS IN BREAD WHEAT UNDER RAINFED CONDITION.

Abstract

To help understand the genetics of drought tolerance, two approved cultivars Kohistan-97 and Sahar-06 were crossed to develop second filial generation. Heritability studies provide valid information about the traits that are transmitted from parents to offspring and also to the successive generations. The highest heritability was observed for plant height (90.83%), number of grains per spike (81.60%) and stomatal frequency (74.15%) associated with high genetic advance (30.94, 19.96 and 16.86 respectively). Moderate to high heritability were recorded for Spike Length (46.03%), flag leaf area (41.39%), 1000-grain weight (58.58%), relative water contents (58.89%) and stomatal Size (56.71%) which associated with high genetic advance (2.57, 3.68, 4.60, 7.58 and 37.10 respectively). While, number of tillers per plant and excised leaf water loss had shown low heritability values. The present finding suggests that most of the yield associated traits have been transmitted with different heritability rates and therefore selection should focus on traits with high heritability rate