Studies on variability and genetic diversity in selected aonla genotypes

A field study was conducted to investigate variability and genetic diversity for morphological and biochemical traits among different aonla genotypes. The high magnitude of PCV were recorded for number of determinate shoot/ indeterminate shoot, length of indeterminate shoot, number of female flowers /determinate shoot and sex ratio. However, the other traits were found to be moderate and of low magnitudes of PCV. Similarly the highest, medium and low magnitude of GCV was recorded for all the characters as close parallelism to PCV. The highest values of heritability in broad sense were recorded for all the characters except fruit length which showed medium value of heritability and low value of heritability was recorded for fruit width. The higher values of genetic advance in percent of mean were observed for number of determinate shoot/indeterminate shoot, number of indeterminate shoot/branch, length of determinate and indeterminate shoot, number of male, female and total flowers/determinate shoot and sex ratio, fruit retention, fruit weight, TSS, reducing and non-reducing sugars. However, the medium value of genetic advance were found in fruit set and acidity and low value of genetic advance were observed in fruit drop, fruit length, fruit width, ascorbic acid and total sugars. Hence, the occurrence of high heritability coupled with genetic advance in percent of mean with moderate GCV and PCV might provide good response in selection. Thus, the 20 quantitative and qualitative characters of selected aonla cultivars were important traits for effective selection.