Variability, Heritability and Genetic Advance for Yield and Yield Contributing Characters in Holostemma ada-kodien – A Vulnerable Medicinal Plant

The experiment was conducted during 2015-2016 at Division of Plant Genetic Resources, Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Hessarghatta, Bengaluru. Genotypic variability, heritability and genetic advance for yield and yield contributing traits were studied on 13 Holostemma ada-kodien accessions. Data were recorded on plant height (m), leaf length (cm), leaf width (cm), petiole length (cm), pedicel length (cm), fruit length (cm), fruit diameter (cm), thickness of pericarp (cm), thickness of mesocarp (cm), number of fruits per plant, fruit yield (kg). Very little differences were observed between genotypic coefficient of variation and phenotypic coefficient of variation for all the characters except thickness of pericarp, thickness of mesocarp and fruit yield per plant indicating that they were less influenced to environmental factors for their phenotypic expression. Broad sense heritability values revealed high heritability for fruit length (97.75 %), petiole length (94.87 %), pedicel length (94.12 %), number of fruits per plant (92.89 %), plant height (90.61 %), leaf length (87.80 %), fruit diameter (86.82%), leaf width (85.86 %) and thickness of mesocarp (62.50 %). The highest GAM was recorded for number of fruits per plant (78.73 %), petiole length (65.47 %), pedicel length (47.27%), leaf width (39.88 %), plant height (31.36 %), leaf length (29.80 %), fruit length (25.91 %), thickness of pericarp (22.90 %).