Genetic variability and association studies in segregating generation of red sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) population

AbstractSorghum is a universal crop grown for its diversified end uses. A total of 250 plants of F­2 generation were evaluated for nine quantitative characters of cross made between Paiyur 2 and Kottathur local 5. The minimum difference was observed between the phenotypic coefficient of variation and genotypic coefficient of variation for all the traits which reveals that the effect of environment was minimum on the expression of the character. High PCV was observed for plant height (20.36%), test weight (23.59%), and single plant yield (44.52%). Low PCV was observed for days to fifty percent flowering (9.80%), days to maturity (6.54%) and number of leaves (7.14%). High heritability accompanied with genetic advance was observed for plant height (h2=99.03%; GAPM=41.55%), leaf length (h2=97.87%; GAPM=23.70%), stem diameter (h2=94.49%; GAPM=27.36%), test weight (h2=99.03%; GAPM=48.13%), and single plant yield (h2=99.57%; GAPM=91.33%) and it indicates that the characters are under the additive gene action and suitable for the selection process. Plant height (0.6115) recorded positive significant correlation with single plant yield and hence selection towards the plant height directly improves the yield. Plant height (0.6132) and test weight (0.297) showed positive direct effect on single plant yield which indicates that the selection towards these characters will improve the yield. Key wordsRed Sorghum, variability, heritability, correlation, path analysis.