Selection criteria for the improvement of seed yield and its components in advances generations of lentil (lens culinaris medik)

Present study was conducted at Nuclear Institute for Agriculture and Biology (NIAB), Faisalabad during the years 2006 and 2007 with the objectives; to study the inheritance of seed yield and related traits in both hybridized (F6) and mutated (M6) populations of lentil and to determine the best selection criterion for the improvement of seed yield. Different genetic parameters (variances, heritabilities, genetic gains and correlations) were computed to study the inheritance pattern and interrelationships of different traits. High heritability was observed for days to flower (97.40%), plant height (90.80%), pods per plant (86.20%), hundred seed weight (83.50%) and seed yield per plant (91.80%) in F6 and for days to flower (96.9%), days to mature (91.8%), hundred seed weight (89.0%) and seed yield per plant (94.0%) in M6 generation. High heritability coupled with moderate to high genetic advance was noted for plant height (90.8%, 16.29) pods per plant (86.20%, 25.53) hundred seed weight (83.50%, 35.67) and seed yield per plant (91.80%, 35.84) in F6 generation and for days to flower (96.9%, 25.08), hundred seed weight (89.0%, 25.56) and seed yield per plant (94.0%, 37.01) in M6 generation. The traits mentioned were found to be under the control of additive genes. Seed yield had positive and significant correlation with pods per plant in M6 and with seed weight in both generations. It was concluded that seed weight and pods per plant may be used as selection criterion in both hybridized and mutated populations for the improvement of seed yield. (author)