Stay-green and other physiological traits as efficient selection criteria for grain yield under drought stress condition in sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench)

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to study the co-efficient of variation, heritability, genetic advance, correlation coefficients and path analysis for yield and other physiological traits of sorghum genotypes under moisture stress condition with the aim of assessing the potential genetic gain. High estimates of heritability and genetic advance as per cent of mean were observed for leaf area index, stay-green score, relative water content, proline, SPAD chlorophyll, plant height and grain yield. Positive and significant correlation of grain yield with leaf area index, stay-green, relative water content, SPAD chlorophyll content and proline were observed. The characters like leaf area index, stay-green, relative water content and SPAD chlorophyll had positive direct effect on single plant yield under drought stress condition at genotypic level. This suggests the possibilities of improvement of these characters through selection for drought tolerance breeding programme.

Keywords

• sorghum bicolor
• genetic variability
• heritability
• genetic advance and genotypes