Genetic Variability, Heritability and Expected Genetic Advance in Soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merrill] Genotypes

摘要

Information on the extent and pattern of genetic variability, heritability, and genetic advance under selection are essential to design breeding strategies in the available germplasm of soybean and helps to identify elite genotypes that will be incorporated in to soybean crop improvement programs to address the growing demand of the crop in Ethiopia. Forty-nine soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill) genotypes were evaluated in a field study in 7×7 simple lattice design with two replications at Jimma Agricultural Research Center (JARC) with the objective of estimating genetic variability, heritability, expected genetic advance, and to estimate genetic divergence, thereby, to cluster the test genotypes in to genetically divergent classes. The result indicated substantial variations for all the traits evaluated. Analysis of variance revealed that there was statistically significant difference among the forty-nine genotypes for most of the traits studied except root volume and root dry weight. The highest heritability value was recorded for total nodules per plant followed by effective nodules per plant and plant height. Significant wide range of mean values was observed in all the characters evaluated. This indicates that the characters can be improved through selection. The Divergence analysis grouped the 49 soybean genotypes into five which shows crossing between genotypes which fall in to different classes would result in hybrid vigour. The principal component analysis revealed that 6 components have accounted for 79.90% of the total variation among the genotypes.