GENETIC VARIABILITY, HERITABILITY AND CORRELATION FOR SOME QUALITY TRAITS IN F3:4 BRASSICA POPULATIONS

Six F3:4 derived interspecific Brassica populations together with three checks were evaluated for their genetic variability and correlation among quality traits at NWFP Agricultural University, Peshawar during the 2004-06 crop seasons. Randomized complete block designs with four replications were employed for the study. Highly significant genetic variation (P 0.01) existed among Brassica populations for oil content, glucosinolate, oleic acid, linolenic acid and erucic acid contents. Non-significant (P 0.05) variation was recorded for protein content. The maximum oleic acid (53.8%) and minimum linolenic acid (9.4%) were recorded for the population 19-83-5, while minimum glucosinolates (50.1 μm g-1) and erucic acid (32.4%) were recorded in population 15-20-1 and 19-2-2 respectively. Genetic variances for most of the traits were generally 3 to 15 times greater than the environmental variance indicating significant genetic control over expression of quality traits. Heritability estimates were high ( 0.70) for glucosinolate, linolenic acid, oleic acid and erucic acid contents, while low heritability ( 0.50) was observed for protein content. Populations 19-83-5, 19-2-2, 2–22-1 and 12-16-1 had outstanding performance for most of the quality traits