Electronic Journal of Plant Breeding (Jun 2015)
Genetic variability and correlation among yield and quality traits in sweet corn
Abstract
The 45 hybrids generated by half diallel mating design using ten inbred lines of sweet corn were evaluated at IARI, New Delhi during kharif-2008. There were significant differences with respect to all the studied yield and biochemical attributes. High genotypic and phenotypic variance were recorded by plant height, cob placement height, grain rows cob-1, hundred grains weight, grain yield and starch content. The difference between genotypic coefficient of variation and phenotypic coefficient of variation was less for all the traits, indicating that improvement is possible through phenotypic selection. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance for cobs plant-1, reducing, non-reducing and total sugars and oil contents, suggests that selection may be effective for these traits. The yield attributing traits showed the high heritability, but low genetic advance indicating non-additive gene action. High genotypic positive correlation was observed between flowering and maturity days, indicates that selection for earliness can be done on the basis of these traits simultaneously. Cob length and grains row-1 showed the positive correlation. There was no strong correlation between yield attributes and biochemical parameters. There was positive correlation between; non-reducing sugar - total sugars, non-reducing sugar - oil content and total sugars - oil content which indicates that sugar content and oil content both can be increased simultaneously by the selection programme.
