Heritability and genetic gain of some morphophysiological variables of durum wheat (Triticum turgidum var. durum)

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to estimate genetic variability parameters and relationship among 11 agrophysiological traits studied on 18 experimental durum wheat and two checks under rainfed condition. The studied traits included the grain yield (YLD), plant height (PH), number of tiller per plant (NT), peduncle length (PL), flag length (FL), leaf dry weight (LDW), stem dry weight (STW), spike dry weight (SPW), spike height (SH), leaf area index (LAI), crop growth rate (CGR), relative growth rate (RGR), leaf area ratio (LAR) and net assimilation rate (NAR). Analysis of variance showed a significantly variation among genotypes for the characters PH, NT, PL, FL, LDW, STW, SPW, SH, LAR and NAR. High correlations were found among the PL, LDW, STW, SPW, LAR and NAR. Heritability estimates were high for PH, PL, LDW, STW and NAR. High genetic gains were observed for YLD, NT, PL, LDW, STW, SPW, LAR and NAR.