PHENOTYPIC CORRELATION AND HERITABILITY ESTIMATES IN BT AND NON-BT COTTON GENOTYPES

Abstract

The field experiment was conducted at Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam during 2016-2017 to assess phenotypic correlations and heritability estimates in Bt and non-Bt cotton genotypes. The experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design with four replications. The material was consisted of eight upland cotton genotypes viz. CRIS-129, BT-3701, FH-901, FH-142, MS-370, Sindh-1, NIA-ufaq and S.G.A-1. The observations were recorded on plant height plant -1 (cm), sympodial branches plant -1 , bolls plant -1 , boll weight (g), ginning outturn percentage, seed index (g), seed cotton yield plant -1 (g) and staple length (mm). Analysis of variance showed significant differences among the genotypes for all traits studied except seed index, which was non-significant. The phenotypic correlations indicated that characters such as plant height, sympodial branches plant -1 , number of bolls, ginning outturn % were positively associated with yield. The results further revealed high heritability ( h 2b.s.) for plant height, sympodial branches plant -1 , bolls plant -1 , boll weight, ginning outturn %, yield plant -1 and staple length, whereas low heritability was observed only for seed index. Promising genotypes can be used for hybridization programs in order to isolate useful recombinants in the segregating generations.