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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Vol. 35 No. 3 (2008)

Genetic diversity and broad sense heritability in tall wheatgrass (Thinopyrum ponticum)

Submitted
June 18, 2021
Published
2008-12-30

Abstract

Ten  naturalized  populations  of  tall  wheatgrass  (Thinopyrum  ponticum)  were  evaluated  in a  completely  randomized  block  design  with  three  replicates.  Each  plant  was  analyzed  for morphological  and  reproductive  characters,  and  statistical  and  genetic  characters  were estimated. Significant differences (p < 0.001) were obtained for the means of all ten populations, indicating  great  variability  between  tall  wheatgrass  populations.  The  results  show  that  the environmental coefficients of variation were high for total seed production (69.24%), number of tillers (54.93%), number of spikes (48.50%), and dry matter production (49.01%). Coefficients of variation were  rather  low  for  spike  length  (19.11%)  and  the 1000-seed weight  (18.44%). Heritability was  high  for  seed weight  (0.86),  dry matter  production  (0.55),  and  the  number of tillers (0.55). Intermediate heritability was found for total seed production (0.30), and low heritability for the number (0.19) and length (0.09) of spikes. Even though the number of spikes showed an intermediate heritability, it was highly and positively correlated with seed production (r=0.603), and a little less so with seed weight (r=0.177). Seed weight showed a high heritability and was positively correlated with seed production  (r=0.285). The wide variability observed between populations for almost all the studied characters will allow them to be integrated into a single germoplasm or into a genetic pool that could be used in programs aimed at the genetic improvement of tall wheatgrass.