Study of Genetic Variability for Yield and Quality Parameters in Newly Developed Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) Interspecific Derivatives Over Two Seasons

The present investigation was conducted to study genetic parameters for sixteen characters viz., days to 50% flowering, days to maturity, plant height, head diameter, leaf length, leaf width, number of leaves per plant, 100 seed weight, volume weight, seed yield/plant, seed length, seed width, stem girth, leaf area index, chlorophyll content and oil content at ICAR-Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research during kharif-2022 and rabi-2022-23, respectively. The study included a total of 50 advanced (BC2F6) interspecific derivatives derived using five diploid annual compatible Helianthus species along with three checks (ARM-243B, DRSF-108 and DRSF-113). Analysis of variance revealed significant differences for all the traits. High variation was observed for plant height and seed yield/plant and lowest was observed for 100 seed weight, oil content and head diameter. The difference between GCV and PCV was low for all the characters indicating less influence of environmental factors on the expression of these traits. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance in percent of mean was observed for plant height, leaf width, number of leaves/plant, volume weight, 100 seed weight, stem girth, leaf area index and chlorophyll content indicating additive gene action in the expression of these traits. Simple phenotypic selection may be effective for improving these characters. High heritability coupled with low genetic advance was observed for days to maturity and oil content suggesting involvement of non-additive gene action in the expression of these traits indicating little scope for further improvement through individual plant selection. The results showed that the experimental material used had a substantial quantity of genetic variability to be used in crop development programs in the future.