GENETIC VARIABILITY, HERITABILITY AND GENETIC ADVANCE FOR AGRONOMIC TRAITS AMONG A-GENOME DONOR WHEAT GENOTYPES.

Present study was conducted during 2011-12 in COMSAT Institute of Information Technology, Abbottabad, Pakistan. Two parent genotypes diploid wheat's (A-genome donor) along with their 48 recombinant in bred lines (RILs) at F7 were evaluated for estimating components of variance, phenotypic and genotypic coefficients, heritability and genetic advance for seed yield and its components. Experiment was laid out in RCBD with three replications. Highly significant differences were observed for all the characters. Phenotypic coefficients of variation (PCV) estimates were found higher than genotypic coefficients of variation (GCV) estimates for all the studied characters in all genotypes showing the influence of environment on traits. A very small difference between GCV and PCV was observed for the traits of plant height, peduncle length and spike length showing less influence of environmental factors on these characters. Large difference between GCV and PCV was observed for the number of tillers per plant, total biomass, spikelets per spike, 1000-grain weight and grain yield per plant. This specified the role of environmental influence on these characters. High heritability (0.579bs) coupled with high genetic advance (6.983%) was observed for 1000-grain weight signifying that this character was under the control of additive genetic effects. The results suggested that selection on the basis of this trait would certainly useful for the breeding program. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]