STUDY OF GENETIC PARAMETERS FOR SEED YIELD AND QUALITY INFLUENCING TRAITS IN MUSTARD (Brassica juncea, Brassicaceae)

The yield component and some morphological characters were studied to determine genetic diversity, correlation of different characters towards yield, and path coefficient. The present study was conducted involving 13 Brassica juncea (L.) Czern., lines/genotypes at the Oilseed Research Station, Ayub Agriculture Research Institute (AARI), Faisalabad, Pakistan. The experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications from November 2019 to March 2020. Analysis of variance indicated that the genotypes were found significantly different for all the characters considered. The correlation coefficient depicted that plant height (0.9104), and thousand seed weight (0.948) had a highly significant positive genotypic correlation with seed yield. At the same time, days to maturity (-0.849) and linolenic acid (-0.818) showed a strong negative genotypic correlation with seed yield per plant. A highly positive genotypic correlation of thousand seed weight with oil content (0.9067) was observed. The results of genotypic path coefficient analysis uncovered that number of branches (0.859), silique length (0.804), and seeds per silique (0.573) had a positive direct impact on seed yield per plant. Thus, these traits could be exploited to enhance the yield potential of mustard (B. juncea) for future hybridization programs, which could help rapeseed/mustard breeders upgrade their breeding activities.