Heritability Estimates and Correlation Analysis for Production Traits in FCV Tobacco

Knowledge of heritability is an essential prerequisite for any crop improvement program. One hundred recombinant inbred lines (RILs) derived from four F4 populations of Flue Cured Virginia (FCV) tobacco were tested to identify effective selection indices. Experimental material was planted at two locations i.e. Mardan (E-1, E-3 and E-5) and Mansehra (E-2, E-4 and E-6) using alpha lattice design with three replicates during 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15. Heritability in broad sense was generally low for all traits except nicotine and reducing sugar. Days to flowering was the most environment responsive trait and its heritability fluctuated between 0.22 and 0.91. Plant height was significantly associated with yield at phenotypic level only. Yield exhibited significantly negative phenotypic correlation with days to flowering. Similarly, yield was positively correlated with leaves per plant, green leaves weight per plot, cured leaves weight per plot and grade index at both phenotypic and genotypic level. Based on findings of the present study, selection among RILs would be more effective on the basis of nicotine, reducing sugar, leaves per plant, green leaves weight, cured leaves weight and grade index.