Estimation of Genetic Variance and Broad Sense Heritability of Sugar Cane(Saccharum Spp. L.)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Breeding Genetic Department, Sugar Crops Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, Giza, Egypt

Abstract

The present investigation was carried out at the  Sabahia Agricultural Research Station; Alexandria, Egypt as planted crop in the two spring seasons 2004/2005, 2005/2006, on ten sugar cane varieties. The objectives of this study were to determine means, ranges, coefficient of variability, variance components and broad sense heritability for some important characters in a population of ten sugar cane varieties. The studied characters are stalk length; stalk diameter, number of internodes, stalk weight, total soluble solid % (Brix), sucrose%and purity%. The ten varieties used in the present study wereobtained from different countries. They were used as parents of the important varieties and as promising Egyptian ones. These varieties are Co.312, Co.421, from India; CP.44-101 from U.S.A., N.Co.310, from South Africa; Ph. 8013, from Philippine; andG.74-96, G.75-368, G.84-47,G.85-37,G.T.54-9, from Egypt. The variety Co.312 was one of the two parents of NCo.310, which had been used as pistil parent for G.T.54-9, G.85-37, G.84-47, G.74-96 and G.75-368. The variety, Cp.44-101, has been used as male parent of G.75-368. Highly significant differences were recorded for the tested varieties in all examined traits. The results indicated that, G.T.54-9, Ph.8013, G.85-37, G.75-368, varieties gave a good performance for the studied characters over both seasons. The studied estimates of coefficient of variability, genotype and phenotype were proven to be less than 10% for all studied characters except for the stalk weight. The genetic variance calculated for the different characters was essential in determining the phenotypic variance, which ranged from 0.0513 for stalk diameter to 8775.39 for stalk weight. The genetic variance for all studied characters was higher than that the environmental variance. Broad sense heritability estimates for sucrose percent was the largest one it recorded (96%), followed by stalk length (95%), stalk weight (94%), total soluble solids percent (93%), number of internodes (92%), purity present (89%) and stalk diameter (88%). This study suggests that genetic variance was the largest source of total variation for studied characters; therefore, the improvement of cane varieties will have more genetic progress and more effective through the seven studied characters. This result indicates that a significant improvement of stalk weight for new lines of sugar cane could be achieved. The chance would be capable to raise sugar cane varieties with good characters.
 

Main Subjects