**Heritability and genetic variability studies in the germplasm accessions of flue cured Virginia tobacco (Nicotiana tobaccum L.)**

Author: C. Nanda, K. Sarala, P. Nagesh, S. Ramakrishnan

Category: Research Article

Abstract:

The present study was undertaken to ascertain the existence of genetic variability and estimate genetic parameters of yield-related characters in 250 flue-cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco germplasm accessions. Analysis of variance revealed the significance of variability among the accessions for all the studied characters viz., plant height, number of leaves, internodal length, mean leaf area per plant, green leaf yield per plant, and cured leaf per plant. phenotypic coefficient of variation (PCV) was higher than genotypic coefficient of variation (GCV) for all the studied traits even though the difference between them is narrow indicating a lesser role of environment in influencing the expression of these traits. Broad sense heritability and genetic advance as percent of mean (GAM) were in the high range for plant height, inter-nodal length, number of leaves per plant, average leaf area, green leaf yield, and cured leaf indicating that selection based on phenotype will be quite effective for these traits. A high magnitude of broad-sense heritability coupled with moderate to high GCV and high GAM was noticed for all the studied characters indicating that additive gene action is involved in the expression of these traits. Thus, the presence of fixable additive gene action makes it possible to use the available variability in further tobacco improvement programs through simple selection.

Keywords: coefficient of variation, genetic advance, germplasm, heritability, tobacco