Vol. 11, Issue 3 (2022)

Author(s):
Mahesh G, Ramesh T, Narendar Reddy S, Meena A, Santosha Rathod, Fiyaz RA, Badri J, Rao LVS, Sundaram RM and Jukanti AK

Abstract:
The present study was carried out to discern the extent of genetic variability in one hundred and forty-seven (147) germplasm lines of rice, for grain protein content, quality traits and yield. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) has shown highly significant differences for all the ten (10) characters, demonstrating the existence of genetic variability among the evaluated germplasm lines. The estimates of PCV were only marginally higher than GCV for all the characters showing smaller environmental influence on the trait expression, therefore genetic improvement through direct selection is possible for the evaluated traits. But, milling % and kernel breadth exhibited moderate PCV and GCV values indicating significant environmental influence on their expression. Overall, the heritability (>80.0%) and genetic advance as percent of mean (20.0%) was high for all the characters except milling % (47.8%; 5.1%). High heritability coupled with genetic advance indicates the influence of additive gene action and selection would be effective in such traits. Protein yield per plant, Length: Breadth ratio and head rice recovery exerted high direct positive effect on grain protein content.