Heritability, Genetic Advance and Minimum Number of Genes in Pearl Millet

Six genetic populations of a pearl millet cross were grown during 1965–66 at Government Agricultural College, Kanpur, for the study of heritability, genetic advance and minimum number of genes for the expression of 15 grain and fodder yield components. Stem thickness, number of spike bearing branches, leaf length, leaf breadth, days to flower, peduncle length, peduncle thickness, spike length and 250-grain weight showed high heritability in broad sense, while other characters showed medium to low heritability. In narrow sense, only leaf length, days to flower, peduncle length and spike length showed high heritability and other characters showed medium to low heritability. Genetic advance in percentage of mean was found maximum for number of spike bearing branches, number of spike bearing tillers, 250-grain weight, number of tillers; intermediate for peduncle length, spike length, days to flower, stem thickness, leaf breadth and peduncle thickness; minimum for plant height, leaf length, number of internodes, number of branches and very trival for stem thickness. The number of genes determining the inheritance of each character was 2–3 for plant height and stem thickness; 5–6 for spike thickness; 2 for peduncle thickness, leaf breadth and number of internodes and one for other characters.. High heritability was observed in the characters being controlled by. a small number of genes (spike length, days to flower, 250-grain weight and peduncle length) and low heritability in the character controlled by a large number of genes (spike thickness).